India's Bharti Airtel has reported a 65.4% year-on-year slump in net profit for the September quarter to 1.19 billion rupees ($16.25 million) as the operator grappled with intense competition and a bitter tariff war.
Consolidated total revenues edged up 0.5% to 204.22 billion rupees on an underlying basis. But Airtel's India revenues fell 3.6% year-on-year to 149.3 billion rupees, with mobile revenues falling 7.2% due to continued competitive pricing pressures.
This decline occurred even as mobile data traffic more than tripled and the operator's 4G customer base grew by 132.2% to 65.7 million.
“Led by our focus on quality customers through simplified pricing and content partnerships, ARPU decline has moderated in this quarter,” Airtel CEO for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal said.
“We remain focused on driving quality base growth with value adding propositions for our customers. We also remain committed to investing in enhanced capacities and have deployed over 27,000 broadband sites during the quarter, enabling a 239% YoY growth in mobile data volumes.”
Airtel Africa revenues by contrast grew 10.8% in constant currency terms, with mobile data traffic up 53% and total Airtel Money customers increasing to 12.9 million.
The group's total mobile subscriber base increased 14.5% to 426.2 million, with Indian customers growing 14.4% 329.6 million, African subscribers up 14.9% to 94.1 million, and South Asian customers growing 16.4% to 2.4 million.