Airtel reveals jump in Capex as 5G roll out starts

Bharti Airtel has revealed that its Capex has significantly increased to reach Rs 8,095 crore in India and Rs 1,208 crore in Africa.
Airtel Africa InternetAirtel said its 5G Plus is live in 70 plus cities.

Airtel India has ~ 369 million mobile subscribers. Airtel Africa has 138.5 million subscribers on its mobile network.

Bharti Airtel’s total revenues rose 19.9 percent to Rs 35,804 crore powered by 19.4 percent rise in India revenue to Rs 24,962 crore and 18 percent growth in Africa revenue at $1.422 billion.

Airtel India added 8,600 new towers during October-December 2022. Airtel India had 262,619 network towers as compared to 230,562 network towers in the same quarter last year. Airtel India had 806,197 mobile broadband base stations as compared to 748,335 mobile broadband base stations at the end of the same quarter last year and 787,498 at the end of the previous quarter.

Airtel India had 332.2 million customers in December 2022, compared to 322.9 million in the same quarter last year, an increase of 2.9 percent. Voice traffic on the network grew 5.1 percent to 1,082 billion minutes during the quarter as compared to 1,030 billion minutes in the same quarter last year.

Airtel India’s 4G data customer base increased by 6.4 million QoQ and 21.2 million YoY to to 216.7 million. The quarter witnessed high data traffic growth of 22.5 percent. Airtel India’s data traffic on the network stood at 13,853 billion MBs as compared to 11,312 billion MBs in the same quarter last year. Average mobile data usage per customer increased by 11 percent to 20.3 GB/month.

Airtel Africa

Airtel Africa company had 30,733 network towers at end of the quarter as compared to 27,422 network towers in the same quarter last year. Airtel Africa has 103,723 mobile broadband base stations as compared to 88,572 mobile broadband base stations at the end of the same quarter last year.

Airtel Africa said data customers during the quarter increased by 6.2 million to 51.3 million as compared to 45.1 million in the same quarter last year. Data customers represent 37 percent of the total customer base, as compared to 35.9 percent. The total sMBs on the network grew at 48.2 percent to 709.6 billion MBs from 478.8 billion MBs. Data usage per customer during the quarter was at 4,741 MBs as compared to 3,586 MBs.

Airtel Africa said the total customer base using the Airtel Money platform increased by 22.2 percent to 31.4 million as compared to 25.7 million in the same quarter last year. Total value of transactions on the Airtel money platform rose 46.7 percent to $25 billion in the quarter as compared to $17 billion in the same quarter last year. Airtel Money revenue rose 30.3 percent to $188.8 million as compared to $144.9 million in the same quarter last year.