Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said its Capex (capital spending) for the first nine months of fiscal 2014 dipped 13.2 percent to $2,323 million from $2,679 million in the same period previous year.
This Capex includes capital spending for telecom markets such as India, Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Airtel India CEO Gopal Vittal earlier indicated that its Capex will be lowered for India as the telecoms started focusing more on customers and new revenue streams.
However, in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, Airtel Capex increased to $455 million from $407 million, indicating that its investments in 3G and 2G are on the right track. This may be good news for telecom equipment vendors such as Ericsson, NSN, etc. in the long run.
Airtel Capex for India
During the third quarter of fiscal 2014, Bharti Airtel’s Capex for India stood at Rs 1,742 crore (Rs 1,300 crore). For nine months, the Capex reached Rs 4,064 crore (Rs 6,317 crore).
In India, Airtel invested Rs 1,352 crore (Rs 806 crore) in B2C services, Rs 823 crore (Rs 745 crore), Rs 110 crore (135 crore) in digital services and Rs 24 crore (Rs 13 crore) in B2B services.
The number of sites in India rose to 137,069 in the third quarter from 135,412 in the second quarter of fiscal 2014.
Out of the Airtel 3G sites grew to 28,179 from 26,616.
Airtel Capex for International operations
Airtel invested $140 million ($160 million) in Africa. In Africa, the number of 3G sites increased to 1,684 from 684.