Telecom Lead Asia: Bharti Airtel has clocked 9.5 percent increase in revenue to Rs 20,239 crore in Q3 2012-13 from Rs 18,477 crore.
Airtel’s revenue in Q3 from mobile data increased y-o-y 70 percent in India, by 80 percent in Africa.
In India, Airtel is aggressively expanding both 3G and 4G networks.
India’s largest telecom service provider, however, posted 72 percent dip in net profit in third quarter to Rs 284 crore from Rs 1011 crore.
Pricing pressure and increasing input costs affected Airtel’s profit.
Profit decreased significantly despite total minutes on network increasing at 12.3 percent to 284 billion.
The good news for Airtel is the 25 percent q-o-q increase in data usage in India.
Digital TV revenue grew 29 percent.
airtel business (B2B) increased 20 percent.
The new activation processes and improved retention strategies in India have helped reduce monthly churn to 5.9 percent from 8.5 percent in the previous quarter.
Airtel’s ARPU has improved to Rs 185, a sequential improvement of Rs 8 in this quarter. Idea Cellular’s ARPU declined to Rs 158 during Q3 from Rs 159.
Idea Cellular has a better profit margin comparing with Bharti Airtel. IN Q3 2012-13, the Aditya Birla group company’s net profit increased 14 percent to Rs 229 crore in the third quarter from Rs 201 crore.
Idea Cellular’s revenue increased to Rs 5578 crore in third quarter of 2012-13 from Rs 5030 crore in Q3 2011-12.
Idea Cellular had attributed the quarterly revenue growth to expansion of voice minutes at 5.2 percent to 132.2 billion minutes compared to 125.6 billion minutes in Q2 FY 2013, indicating consumer demand for voice telephony remains robust.
Reliance Communications has posted 5 percent increase in Q3 2012-13 revenue to Rs 5,301 crore. India’s No.3 mobile phone carrier by customers reported a 44 percent drop in quarterly profit to Rs 105 crore as its heavy debt load continued to weigh on earnings. The mobile operator’s net profit in Q3 2011-12 was Rs 186 crore.
Airtel will look forward for further increase in APRU in India since the telecom major increased tariffs recently.
Airtel’s Africa revenues grew by 15 percent. In Africa, customer base grew 21 percent, while growth in voice traffic was 42 percent. Africa’s non voice revenue growth was 85 percent. Voice usage per customer has grown 15 percent from 125 minutes to 144 minutes.
“Market conditions have been challenging in recent quarters due to pricing pressures and rising input costs, which have put enormous pressure on the sector and consequently the margins. However, the worst seems to be getting over with corrections taking place in customer acquisition practices and the tariffs, which are driving quality of acquisitions and improving efficiencies. Moreover, on the data front, it is heartening to see strong growth quarter on quarter and across geographies,” said Sunil Mittal, chairman & managing director, Bharti Airtel.
