Bharti Airtel second quarter revenue in fiscal 2014 increased 9.9 percent to Rs 21,324 crore.
The telecom operator’s profit decreased 29 percent to Rs 512 crore, said Bharti Airtel on Wednesday.
Mobile internet revenues contributed significantly to the revenue growth, Airtel said. Mobile internet revenues rose more than 100 percent to Rs 1,503 crore.
The telecom operator, which is expanding its 3G and 4G presence in India, recently, kicked off a Re 1 video download campaign. Mobile internet revenue now accounts for 39 percent of overall incremental revenue.
The other growth drivers include 28 percent increase in digital TV revenue, 21 percent growth in its enterprise business and 54.4 percent income growth in South Asia.
Revenue from Airtel Africa, where it has a strong presence, rose 5.4 percent in dollar terms.
Comparing with Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel revenue and profit performance was worse. Last week, Idea Cellular said messaging companies (OTT players) have impacted its non data VAS services revenue. The telecom operator’s second quarter revenue in fiscal 2014 decreased 3.29 percent to Rs 6,323 crore from Rs 6,538 crore in the first quarter.
Idea Cellular revenue increased 18.98 percent compared with Rs 5,314 crore in the second quarter of previous financial year. The second quarter profit of Idea Cellular declined 3.24 percent to Rs 448 crore from Rs 463 crore in the first quarter of current fiscal. ( OTT impacts Idea Cellular non data VAS services revenue )
Airtel India business
The most interesting fact is that Airtel ARPU increased by Rs 15 to Rs 192 in the second quarter of fiscal 2014.
Both data and voice usage contributed to the ARPU growth. While data usage increased to 231 MBs per customer from 133 MBs, voice usage per customer increased to 437 minutes per month from 417 minutes.
Airtel Africa
Airtel Africa revenue growth was supported by data usage. It reported 28.2 percent increase in data revenues. Mobile voice pricing in Africa remained stable at 3.30 cents per minute. Net revenue in Africa rose 20.7 percent in INR terms.
One of the main reasons for the substantial decline in profit was depreciation of the Indian Rupee that has resulted in forex restatement and derivative losses of Rs 342 crore.
