Bharti Airtel Q2 profit beats estimates on mobile data boost

During the quarter, Airtel India rolled out 3G on 900 MHz as well as 2100 MHz spectrum that the company purchased in the auctions.

The number of cell sites increased to 149,518 sites from 141,290 sites in the corresponding quarter previous year.

Africa business, which presents in 17 countries and contributes 26 percent to total revenue, showed an improvement during the quarter with consolidated revenue rising 1.8 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 6,272 crore, beating analysts’ expectations.

The number of 3G network sites increased to 62,447 in September quarter of 2015 from 52,886 at the end of the previous quarter and 38,055 in the same quarter past year.

Bharti Airtel has been in the lead in bringing fourth generation data services to customers in India, ramping up coverage ahead of rival Reliance Jio, the telecommunications unit of cash-rich conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd’s, 4G services launch. Operating Income for the quarter was Rs 82,502.00 million, compared with Rs 77053 million in the previous year period.

Bharti Airtel said mobile services customer base has increased to 32.59 crore, up 2.5 percent over preceding quarter driven by all geographies.

Average revenue per user from data rose to 193 rupees in the quarter, up from 150 rupees a year earlier.

“Airtel’s revenue growth in India has accelerated to 13.3 per cent in Q2 on an underlying basis, the highest in the last 12 quarters”, Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said. Africa net loss widened to $170 million from $124 million a year ago.

– Data Realization per MB decreased by 1.56% QoQ to Rs 0.2517 and decreased by 5.62% YoY from Rs 0.2667. Strong demand is being witnessed both in voice and data with our consumption increasing by 19.5% and 104.5% respectively. Consistent net additions have expanded our customer base to more than 80 million with growth of 13.3%. “In first half of the year, we have divested tower assets of Dollars 1.7 billion”. Africa traffic volume increased 6 percent during the same period.

Data ARPU of Airtel Africa increased to $3.4 from $3.1.