PremiumBengaluru: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd reported its highest ever consolidated quarterly consolidated revenue on Tuesday, driven by higher tariffs and a rise in data usage from a coronavirus-fuelled shift to remote working.
Indian telecom operators, grappling with low tariffs due to a price war that ensued after Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio entered the space, hiked prices last year as they were ordered to pay ₹92,000 cr in dues to the government.
That helped the company's quarterly consolidated revenue rise 22% to ₹25,785 crore as against ₹21,131 crore a year ago due to "strong growth across the portfolio – geographies and segments", a company statement said.
Average revenue per user at India's second largest telecom operator rose to ₹162 for the quarter, from ₹128 a year earlier.
The company's 4G data customers rose by 14.4 million to 152.7 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30.
"Total minutes of usage on the network during the quarter were 952 billion, representing a growth of 20.5% as compared to 790 billion in the corresponding quarter last year. Mobile data traffic grew 58.8% to 7,949 billion MBs during the quarter as compared to 5,005 billion MBs in the corresponding quarter last year," the company said in a stock exchange filing.
Consolidated net loss for the quarter ended 30 September came in at ₹763 cr.
The losses were significantly lower than Q2FY20, when it stood at ₹23,045 crore, after the company had made provisions of ₹28,450 crore in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling on statutory dues.
In a statement, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India and South Asia, said: "Despite being a seasonally weak quarter, we delivered a strong performance with revenue growing at 22 per cent year-on-year".
The company stays committed to improving the profitability of business, he asserted.
On Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues, the Airtel statement said the Group has made a representation to the government that it has already paid more than 10 per cent of the total dues as demanded by the Telecom Department and will ensure ongoing compliance with the Supreme Court’s orders.
On Tuesday, the company's stocks on BSE closed 0.17% lower at ₹433.30 apiece.
Bharti Airtel also said it will exit the Ghanaian telecom market and will be selling Airtel Ghana to Government Of Ghana.
With agency inputs
