Airtel full-year profit climbs 86.9%

Dylan Bushell-Embling
30 Apr 2015
00:00

India's Bharti Airtel revealed its net profit for the year ending in March surged 86.9% to 12.55 billion rupees ($197.5 million), and has revealed plans to put a stop to its 3G roaming pacts.

The operator reported a 7.3% increase in revenue to 920.39 billion rupees. Combined India and South Asia revenues grew 12.1%, while African net revenues grew 7.5% in constant currency terms. Forex losses increased to 21.53 billion rupees from 12.42 billion rupees a year earlier.

Airtel ended the year with nearly 310.9 million mobile subscribers - 226 million from India, 8.6 million from South Asia and 76.2 million from the company's African operations.

For the fourth quarter, revenue grew 3.6% to 230.16 billion rupees, with mobile data revenues up 59.1% year-on-year to 30.85 billion rupees.

India revenues improved 11.8% year-on-year, while African revenues edged up 3.4% in constant currency terms.

“The year has ended on a healthy note, with revenue growth accelerating to 12.1% in 2014-15, from 9.9% and 9.5% respectively in the previous two years,” Bharti Airtel CEO for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal commented.

“Once again, the 20,000-strong Airtel family has stood together to deliver these results.”

At a conference call to discuss the results, Airtel CFO for India Nilanjan Roy meanhile revealed that the company plans to phase out its controversial three-way 3G roaming pacts with Vodafone India and Idea Cellular as it rolls out 3G in more circles, Press Trust of Indiareported.

The operators entered the agreement to be able to provide 3G services in areas they lack licenses, but the agreement has fallen afoul of the Department of Telecom (DoT), which has considered 3G inter-circle roaming pacts to be illegal.

Last year the operators successfully overturned penalties imposed on them by the DoT after appealing to the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

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