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Bharti Airtel MD Gopal Vittal on Tuesday batted for another industry-wide tariff hike, arguing that returns on capital employed (ROCE) in the sector continue to lag in India.
In the earnings statement on Monday, Vittal said that the company's balance sheet remains solid, supported by cash generation and continued deleveraging. During the July-September quarter, Bharti Airtel said it prepaid another tranche of Rs 8,465 crore of high-cost spectrum dues. "At the same time, we believe that industry needs further tariff repair for sustained investments given that ROCE for India is still only 11 per cent," Vittal said. In the past two years or so, telecom operators in India hiked tariffs twice by a cumulative 40 per cent. The telecom operator reported that its consolidated revenues for the July-September quarter were at Rs 41,473 crore, up 12 on a yearly basis, and 7.7 per cent on a quarterly basis. The telecom operator asserted that its earnings were driven by strong momentum in India and growth in constant currency in Africa. Consolidated EBITDA for the July-September quarter at Rs 22,021 crore, growing 12 per cent year-on-year, implying EBITDA margin of 53.1 per cent. The company's India revenues during the quarter were at Rs 31,561 crore, which increased by 16.9 per cent year-on-year. Mobile revenues grew 18.5 per cent year-on-year led by tariff raise coupled with relentless focus to premiumize the portfolio with quality customers. Bharti Airtel claimed that it continues to deliver industry-leading Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) growth. ARPU for the quarter stood at Rs 233 as compared to Rs 203 in the same quarter of last year. During the quarter, the telecom operator rolled out an additional 5,000 towers and 15,200 mobile broadband stations in the quarter to enhance connectivity and provide a superior network experience. Airtel recently launched India's first network-based, AI-powered spam detection solution to curb the country's spam menace. A first-of-its-kind solution by a telecom service provider in the country, the tool will alert customers in real time to all suspected spam calls and SMSes. The solution is free of cost and will get auto-activated for all Airtel customers without them having to raise a service request or download an app. Lately, promotional voice calls and messages from unregistered marketers have to some extent become a menace. "Our focus on winning quality customers and driving premiumization has helped us add 4.2 Mn smartphone customers. We continue to expand our Wifi coverage with FWA offerings to over 2,000 cities. We continue to invest in our digital businesses to diversify portfolio strength and drive long-term growth," Vittal said in the earnings report. "Airtel also continues to invest in a future-ready digital network to deliver brilliant customer experience - we launched India's first AI-powered, network-based spam detection solution to solve the endemic problem of spam calls and messages. Our 5G network has once again received validation from Open signal - Airtel was awarded all the five awards on 5G network experience," Vittal added. (ANI)
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