Airtel's December Quarter Profit Falls 3%, Revenue Jumps 12.6%

Telecom major Bharti Airtel's consolidated net profit for December quarter period of the current fiscal recorded a 3 per cent fall to stand at Rs 830 crore. The company had registered a net profit of Rs 854 crore during the corresponding period of last year.

However at the same time, Airtel reported a 12.6 per cent rise in third-quarter revenue, led by recent tariff hikes and subscriber additions.

It's consolidated revenue from operations for the third quarter ended rose to Rs 29,867 crore from Rs 26,518 crore of last year's corresponding period.

Airtel's average revenue per user (ARPU) was Rs 163 for the third quarter, up from Rs 146 a year ago.

In November 2021, the telecom company had raised tariffs on prepaid plans, as did Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, while reiterating that the industry's mobile ARPU needs to be at Rs 200, and eventually at Rs 300, for a financially healthy business model.

Gopal Vittal, Airtel's managing director and CEO of India and South Asia, said, “we have delivered another quarter of sustained performance across all our business segments. Overall sequential revenue growth was at 5.4 per cent and EBITDA margins came in at 49.9 per cent. The recent tariff revision for mobile services has gone down well and we are exiting the quarter with an industry leading ARPU of Rs 163. The full impact of the revised mobile tariffs, however, will be visible in the fourth quarter."