Telecom Lead India: Bharti Airtel has reported 14 percent increase in consolidated revenues at Rs 19,350
crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2012.
The consolidated net income plummeted to Rs 762 crore in
first quarter of fiscal 2012-13 from Rs 1,215 crore in Q1 2011-12.
Overall customer base grew to 260.7 million, across 20
countries.
Currently, Airtel has 250 million wireless customers.
Total minutes on network were 274.6 billion, sequentially up
3.5 percent (9.4 billion).
Revenue in Africa grew by 31.5 percent.
Thanks to 3G and 4G launches, mobile data revenues in India
increased by 44.2 percent.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman & managing director, Bharti
Airtel, said telecom revenues in India have been depressed due to
hyper-competition and recent regulatory & tax developments.
Despite adverse developments, Airtel has kept its focus on
network expansion, market investments, superior customer experience and new
product innovations.
India data pick-up is accelerating with over 38 million
customers and mobile data revenues up 44 percent.
Airtel said mobile revenues in India during the quarter were
impacted by two significant changes:
TRAI guidelines around processing fees restricted the sales
of combo packs which offered bundled service propositions to augment customer
value.
The service tax hike from 10.3 percent to 12.36 percent,
effective 1st April 2012, causing all telecom services to become dearer by nearly
2 percent, with the entire additional levy being passed through to the
exchequer.
Africa revenues grew by 31.5 percent, driven by strong
operational performance in the last year and favorable currency movements.
However, economic and currency headwinds are presently evident in key markets,
as a result of the eurozone crisis, lower aid and grants, rising inflation and
political issues in some countries. With this in mind, the company intensified
market operations, advertising, network rollouts, as well as new growth
initiatives such as 3G, airtel money and Rwanda.
editor@telecomlead.com