Airtel India CEO Gopal Vittal has revealed the operational performance of the telecom operator in the Sept quarter of 2019.
Airtel India has lost significant number of mobile phone customers during the second quarter in line with the strategy to focus on better-ARPU customers.

Airtel’s mobile customer base dropped 15.0 percent to 279.4 million in Q2 fiscal 2020 from 332.8 million in Q2 fiscal 2019. But its customer base rose 1 percent in the current quarter as compared to 276.8 million in the previous quarter.

Minutes traffic on Airtel’s 2G, 3G and 4G network grew 3.4 percent to 717 billion from 693 billion.

Airtel has added 4.2 million data customers. It has added 7.9 million 4G data customers. 4G customer base of Airtel reached 103.1 million. Total MBs on the network increased 81.5 percent to 4,829 billion MBs. Mobile data usage per customer increased 42.2 percent to 12.8 GBs.

Airtel has re-farmed 4G spectrum and will shut down 3G spectrum across circles as planned. Airtel had increased the number of network towers to 185,582 from 171,031. Out of the total number of towers, 181,825 are mobile broadband towers.

Airtel has 461,891 mobile broadband base stations vs 347,642 at the end of the same quarter last year and 443,804 at the end of the previous quarter.

Airtel said revenue from mobile services increased 7.1 percent to Rs 109,814 million. The company offered differential services to its high value consumers and achieved an upturn in revenues the current quarter despite being a seasonally weak quarter. Airtel ARPU increased to Rs 128 from Rs 100.

Airtel’s EBITDA was Rs 39,913 million vs Rs 21,468 million in the same quarter last year and Rs 38,742 million in the previous quarter. EBITDA margin was 36.3 percent during the quarter vs 20.9 percent in the same quarter last year and 35.7 percent in the previous quarter.

Airtel has broadband coverage in 100 cities with 2.35 million customers. Airtel’s broadband business added 8,000 broadband customers compared to 24,000 in corresponding quarter last year.

Airtel’s capital expenditure of Rs 1,023 million was primarily on account of expansion of high speed fiber.

Airtel’s Digital TV Services had its Digital TV operations in 639 districts. DTH had 16.2 million customers, registering an increase of 9.7 percent. Net customer additions for Digital TV during the quarter were 181,000. Airtel’s Digital TV ARPU dropped to Rs 162 from Rs 232.

Airtel Business revenues remained flattish at Rs 33,312 million. Airtel Business’ Capex was Rs 2,620 million vs Rs 3,085 million.