Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel says around 50 percent of new broadband users subscribed to 4 Mbps speed and above. 30 percent of the entire customer base has opted for better speeds.
The company’s improved speed offerings and focus on quality of acquisitions resulted in customers opting for better speeds.
Bharti Airtel said the company’s telemedia operations are available in in 87 cities with 3.4 million customers, out of which approximately 1.5 million are broadband (DSL) customers, representing 43.4 percent of the total Telemedia customers.
In the third quarter of 2013, Airtel telemedia business revenue rose 10.4 percent to Rs 9,869 million from Rs 8,938 million in the corresponding quarter last year.
Due to increased network operating costs on managed services, focus on selling activities for higher bandwidth customers and higher marketing spends, EBITDA for the quarter was lower by 4.3 percent to Rs 3,574 million compared to Rs 3,735 million in the corresponding quarter last year.
EBITDA margin for this segment was 36.2 percent during the quarter. EBIT for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 was Rs 1,278 million as compared to Rs 1,768 million in the same quarter last year.
In the third quarter of 2013, Bharti Airtel invested a Capex (capital spending) of Rs 823 million in telemedia business.
As part of its mobile business expansion, Bharti Airtel increased the number of telecom sites to 137,069 in Q3 from 135,412 in the previous quarter.
The company continued to invest in strengthening its network infrastructure with the deployment of 1,563 new 3G sites during the quarter, resulting in 28,179 active 3G sites by the end of the quarter. The increase in network sites will ensure a better customer experience, which also results in lower churn and improved ARPU.
