Bharti Airtel has recently announced its financial result – Capex, Opex, subscriber growth, ARPU, revenue and profit – during January-March 2024.
Gopal Vittal, MD of Bharti Airtel, said: “Our focus on improving customer experience has resulted in 20 percent churn reduction during the quarter. Our simple and clear strategy coupled with razor-sharp focus on execution enabled us to end the quarter with life-time high market share across all businesses.”
Capex
Airtel has rolled out ~10.5k towers in the January-March quarter and 43,102 towers during the year to strengthen 4G and 5G network coverage across India. Bharti Airtel’s total Capex for the quarter was Rs 10,516 crore. Airtel India’s Capex was Rs 8,491 crore.
Subscribers
Airtel added 28.6 million 4G/5G data customers in the last 12 months. Airtel added 0.8 million postpaid customers in Q4’24. Airtel’s postpaid customer base reached 51.2 million (including IoT). Airtel added 7.8 million smart phone customers.
Airtel India has a total customer base of 406 million at the end of March 2024. Bharti Airtel has ~562 million customers across 16 countries.
ARPU
Airtel India’s ARPU for the quarter stood at Rs 209 as compared to Rs 193 in Q4’23 driven by sustained focus on acquiring quality customers and mix improvement. Airtel has hiked its broadband price during the recent quarter.
Revenue
Airtel India revenues increased by 12.9 percent to Rs 28,513 crore. Airtel India mobile revenues grew by 12.9 percent driven by improved realisation as well as strong 4G and 5G customer additions.
Motilal Oswal Financial Services, in its report, said Airtel’s management reiterated the need for tariff reform, which is essential across the industry to improve return ratios. “Overall Capex is likely to moderate from FY25. Airtel plans to roll out 25k more sites in locations where it has a lesser market share.”