Bharti Airtel posted its highest ever consolidated quarterly revenue in Q3, 2020, driven largely by higher tariffs and a rise in data usage because of increased remote working. In a press release on Tuesday, the company said that its consolidated quarterly revenue rose 22% to Rs. 25,785 crore as compared to Rs. 21,131 crore a year ago due to “strong growth across the portfolio – geographies and segments”.
Overall, the company’s 4G subscriber base increased 14.4 million to 152.7 million for the quarter ended September 30. ARPU (average revenue per user) also increased from RS. 128 to Rs. 162 YoY, but the company still reported a consolidated net loss of Rs. 763 crore. However, that is still a massive improvement over the preceding quarter, when the company reported a whopping loss of Rs. 23,045 crore, although, it includes provisions for Rs. 28,450 crore following the Supreme Court verdict on statutory dues.
Announcing its quarterly results in a filing with the stock exchanges, Airtel said: “Total minutes of usage on the network during the quarter were 952 billion, representing a growth of 20.5% as compared to 790 billion in the corresponding quarter last year. Mobile data traffic grew 58.8% to 7,949 billion MBs during the quarter as compared to 5,005 billion MBs in the corresponding quarter last year”.
Following a bruising battle for customers with the all-conquering Reliance Jio, Airtel has started making a comeback of sorts in the wireless sector this year. The company, earlier this year, went past Vodafone Idea to become the second-largest mobile telecom operator in India, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The company was once the leading wireless carrier in the country before the emergence of Reliance Jio and the merger of Vodafone Idea relegated it to the third spot.
