Telecom tower company Bharti Infratel said revenues for the third quarter in December 2016 rose 10 percent to Rs 3,401 crore – driven by Capex (capital expenditure) by telecoms in data networks.
EBITDA of Bharti Infratel increased 9 percent to Rs 1,496 crore, representing an operating margin of 44 percent.
Net profit of Bharti Infratel increased 25 percent Rs 620 crore for the third quarter of fiscal 2017.
“Post investments in spectrum, operators are focused on strengthening their network capacities and coverage, resulting in highest ever addition of co-locations in this quarter,” said Akhil Gupta, chairman of Bharti Infratel.
Indian telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India, Reliance Jio and Reliance Communications are making investment in mobile data networks.
The Capex (capital expenditure) of Bharti Airtel was Rs 6,830 million in Q3 against Rs 5,112 million in Q2.
Bharti Infratel’s achievements
Bharti Infratel has increased the number of telecom towers to 90,255 in third quarter of fiscal 2016-17 from 89,791 in second quarter.
Co-locations of Bharti Infratel increased to 204,934 from 198,795.
Bharti Infratel added 6,139 co-locations. Bharti Infratel and Indus had average sharing factors of 2.17 and 2.29 per tower respectively for the quarter ended December 31, 2016.
Bharti Infratel operated 38,997 towers with 86,112 co-locations in 11 telecom circles while Indus operated 122,044 towers with 282,909 co-locations in 15 telecom circles.
Bharti Infratel’s and Indus’s three largest telecom customers are Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.
Deloitte, in June 2015, said Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers together have a market share of 40.8 percent and 48.6 percent for towers and co-locations respectively.
Bharti Infratel had participated in bid for setting up intelligent street poles for implementing Smart City project in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. During the quarter, Bharti Infratel along with its Consortium partners have signed the concession agreement with the authorities and is now working towards a project delivery.
As part of strategy for new revenue streams and smart city business, SmarTx had applied for and has received Unified License with NLD and ISP (Cat – A) authorizations. This would allow the company to invest in and monetize fiber and Wi-Fi networks.
