Bharti Airtel second-quarter revenue jumps 22% on higher tariffs, 4G additions
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd reported its highest-ever quarterly consolidated revenue on Tuesday, helped by higher tariffs and additions to its 4G subscriber base.
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 920 billion rupees ($12.44 billion) in dues to the government.
That helped Bharti Airtel’s consolidated revenue jump 22% to 257.85 billion rupees during the seasonally-weak second quarter ended Sept. 30.
“The main reason is that they added a lot more 4G customers than we expected… that had an effect on ARPU (average revenue per user),” said Vivekanand Subbaraman, an analyst at Ambit Capital, who