Telecom operator Bharti Airtel said its revenue fell 8.8 percent to Rs 21,935 crore in Q4 fiscal 2017 triggered by 7.1 percent drop in India revenues.
“The sustained predatory pricing by the new operator has led to a decline in revenue growth for the second quarter in a row,” said Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia at Bharti Airtel.
Gopal Vittal said the Indian telecom industry also witnessed a revenue decline for the first time ever on a full year basis.
Airtel in Q4 fiscal 2017
# India revenues down 7.1 percent
# Africa revenues up 2.6 percent
# Mobile data traffic reaches 271 billion MBs (+56.3 percent)
# Mobile data revenues of Rs 3,686 crore (–14.6 percent)
# EBITDA of Rs 7,993 crore (–13 percent)
# EBITDA margin of 36.4 percent (–0.4 percent)
# Net income of Rs 373 crore (Rs 1,319 crore)
Airtel in fiscal 2017
# Revenues of Rs 95,468 crore (+1.1 percent)
# EBITDA of Rs 35,621 crore (+4.3 percent)
# EBITDA margin +1.9 percent
# Net income of Rs 3,799 crore (–37.5 percent)
Airtel, according to TRAI data, had 23.25 percent share in the Indian wireless market till February 2017. Airtel has 15.84 percent share in the Indian wireline phone market. Airtel is the top player in wireless market, while it is the second largest operator wired phone market behind BSNL.
Bharti Airtel has 46.69 million broadband subscribers including 2.07 million wired broadband connections in India. Airtel has 17.87 percent market share – behind 4G operator Reliance Jio – in India’s broadband market. The statistics is for February, when Jio offered free services.
Jio impacts Airtel India
Jio Infocomm’s free offers have impacted revenue growth of telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India, among others.
Jio added 72 million 4G subscribers during its migration of free offers to paid services after adding 100 million during the free promotional period. During the last two quarters, some telecoms have slashed their data rates for all users, while some telecoms offered unlimited voice along with data bundles.
Interestingly, Reliance Jio is yet to reveal its subscriber base till April-end. According to some media reports, Jio faced challenges in enhancing its paid subscriber base from 72 million.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
