Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said its third quarter data ARPU rose 7 percent to Rs 75 from Rs 70 in second quarter. Airtel voice ARPU grew 1 percent to Rs 161.

Airtel has 54,429,000 data customers in the third quarter against 50,631,000 in the second quarter of fiscal 2014. Out of this, 3G data customers are 94,85,000 (80,15,000).

While data ARPU increased to Rs 75, data usage per user rose to 249 MB from 231 MB.

While voice ARPU rose marginally to Rs 161, voice average use decreased to 434 minutes from 437 minutes. This means, the increase in ARPU is primarily due to increase in Airtel mobile tariff.

Airtel says voice realization per minute increased to 37.13p from 36.74p. Data realization per MB dipped to 30.14p from 30.26p.

Both 3G and 2G are driving the mobile data growth.

That’s why Airtel has increased the number of 3G sites in India and Africa. The number of sites in India rose to 137,069 in the third quarter from 135,412 in the second quarter of fiscal 2014. Out of the Airtel 3G sites grew to 28,179 from 26,616.

Airtel invested $140 million ($160 million) in Africa. In Africa, the number of 3G sites increased to 1,684 from 684.

picture source: nation.co.ke