Bharti Airtel has revealed the Capex (capital expenditure) for its business in India and Africa for the March quarter of 2021.

The total capital expenditure of Airtel India and Africa for the fourth quarter was Rs 68,465 million. The main focus of Airtel India and Airtel Africa was on building the 4G network.

Revenue

Airtel’s Consolidated revenues for the quarter rose by 11.9 percent Rs 257,473 million. Airtel’s India revenues increased 9.6 percent to Rs 183,378 million. Airtel’s Africa revenues rose by 21.7 percent to $ 1,058 million.

Airtel India

Airtel India’s mobile business had a capex of Rs 37,393 million. The company added 8,300 new towers in Q4 fiscal 2020-21.

Airtel India had 216,901 network towers as compared to 194,409 network towers in the corresponding quarter last year. Out of the total number of towers, 215,801 are mobile broadband towers.

Airtel India had 606,783 mobile broadband base stations as compared to 503,883 mobile broadband base stations at the end of the corresponding quarter last year and 568,345 at the end of the previous quarter.

Airtel India’s mobile subscriber base increased to 321.4 million customers as on March 31 2021 against 283.7 million in the corresponding quarter last year, an increase of 13.3 percent. The company added 13.4 million customers during the quarter.

Airtel India’s mobile customer churn dropped to 2.2 percent compared to 2.6 percent in corresponding quarter last year.

Airtel India’s 4G data customer base increased to 179.3 million, increased by 13.7 million QoQ and 43 million YoY. Data traffic grew 42.7 percent to 9,207 billion MBs as compared to 6,453 billion MBs in the corresponding quarter last year.

Average mobile data usage per customer increased 12.5 percent to 16.4 GBs as compared to 14.6 GBs in the corresponding quarter last year.

Airtel Africa

Airtel Africa’s capital expenditure during the quarter was $211 million.

Airtel Africa had 25,368 network towers at end of the quarter as compared to 22,909 network towers in the same quarter last year. Out of the total number of towers, 23,826 are mobile broadband towers. Airtel Africa has 76,563 mobile broadband base stations vs 47,082 mobile broadband base stations at the end of the same quarter last year.

Airtel Africa’s data customers increased by 5.1 million to 40.6 million as compared to 35.4 million in the same quarter last year. Data customers represent 34.3 percent of the total customer base, as compared to 32 percent in the same quarter last year. The total MBs on the network grew at 59 percent to 348.2 billion MBs compared to 219 billion MBs in the same quarter last year.

Airtel Africa said data usage per customer during the quarter was at 2,896 MBs as compared to 2,145 MBs in the corresponding quarter last year, an increase of 35 percent.