Airtel Mobile Operations in India positively surprised with Minutes of Usage growth of 5.1% qoq, though was partially offset by qoq RPM decline of 1.6%. This Growth in Wireless MoU of Indian business suggests that Bharti’s strategy of realigning tariffs is yielding positive elasticity.
Mobile ARPU was Rs 189 per month as compared to Rs 187 in the previous quarter. Airtel India Mobile Subscriber base has reached 181.27 Mn at the end of March-2012. Overall customer base across 20 countries and across bouquet of Telecommunications services now stands at 251.6 million
VAS contributed 14.4% of the total Wireless revenues. Share of SMS Revenues is still very high at 8.7%.
Airtel now has 3.2 Mn Landline Customers of which 1.4 Mn are subscribing to DSL Broadband Services with an ARPU of Rs 933 / Month.
Airtel Internet / Broadband Strategy Revealed: The company revealed that it plans to be across all segments of Data Services 2G, 3G and 4G-LTE in Wireless and DSL Broadband in the Wired segment for connecting Indians. Airtel 2G and 3G data growth has been in double digits and is expected to rise further and Airtel Sr. Management has decided to stay ahead of the competition in offering superior customer experience.
Airtel to Spend USD 2Bn on CAPEX in India The Airtel management has confirmed in the Call that they will spend close to USD 2Bn in India strengthening its back-haul & IP network, expanding 3G footprint to have the same topography as that of 2G, which is paramount for data services. CAPEX across all the 20 Nations will be $3.2 Bn.
Airtel on 4G-LTE 4G-LTE is being rolled out in phase as the technology is still evolving. Their are no standards yet for Voice over LTE, but VoIP is a reality. Company is happy with early experience.
On 2G Voice Business in India Competition is not down yet. Bulk of operators are barely able to cover their expenses. No further Gains expected in Voice ARPU and at the same time No loss is seen from current levels, even though Economics and Input Costs suggest that prices must rise, but doesn’t see this happening until their is a meaningful consolidation in the market.
Airtel wants to get back to its Numero Uno position on Revenue Market Share and is striving for the same. It is happy with aggression in some circles as it has yielded positive results.