Bharti Airtel, India\u2019s second-largest mobile operator by subscribers, reported a seventh consecutive quarterly increase in profit on Thursday, supported by a growing customer base and a shift toward higher-margin telecom plans, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indian operators have been trying to raise revenue by moving customers to more expensive packages. Airtel and market leader Reliance Jio have removed entry-level 4G and 5G packs in an effort to speed up migration to higher-value plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Airtel\u2019s consolidated pre-tax profit rose 34.4% to 125.58 billion rupees ($1.39 billion) for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with 93.46 billion rupees a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Airtel\u2019s average revenue per user (ARPU), a key profitability measure, climbed 5.7% year-on-year to 259 rupees during the quarter. The company said the share of users on 4G and 5G connections increased to 79%, indicating continued upgrades to faster services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Airtel\u2019s India mobile user base grew 12.6% year-on-year to 465.9 million as of Dec. 31. That remained below Reliance Jio\u2019s 515.3 million users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest results included a 2.57 billion rupees charge linked to the implementation of new labour codes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the year-ago quarter, Airtel\u2019s profit had been boosted by 75.5 billion rupees from a higher valuation of its stake in telecom tower company Indus Towers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Airtel\u2019s overall revenue increased 19.6% to 539.82 billion rupees. The figure included proceeds from Indus Towers, in which Airtel acquired a majority stake last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India\u2019s telecom market has been intensely competitive since Reliance Jio entered in 2017 and rapidly built the largest subscriber base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, Jio reported an 11% rise in quarterly profit, while smaller rival Vodafone Idea reported narrower losses, Reuters said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Airtel executive vice chairman Gopal Vittal said in a company release that stronger cash generation and sustained deleveraging had reinforced the firm\u2019s balance sheet and positioned it to invest in new growth opportunities.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bharti Airtel, India\u2019s second-largest mobile operator by subscribers, reported a seventh consecutive quarterly increase in profit on Thursday, supported by a growing customer base and a shift toward higher-margin telecom plans, Reuters reported. Indian operators have been trying to raise revenue by moving customers to more expensive packages. Airtel and market leader Reliance Jio have… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-29"],"yoast_head":"\n