[BENGALURU] Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest mobile carrier by number of users, posted its sixth straight quarterly profit rise on Monday (Nov 3), as users upgraded to higher-margin 4G and 5G plans and on steady subscriber additions.
Its consolidated net profit jumped 89 per cent to 67.92 billion rupees (S$998.2 million) for the three months ended Sep 30.
Airtel’s industry-leading average revenue per user (ARPU) – a key telecom metric – rose 10 per cent year on year to 256 rupees in the quarter, with the number of 4G and 5G users in their customer base surging 8.4 per cent.
Despite the rapid adoption of 4G and 5G plans, millions of Indians still rely on 2G feature phones for basic voice and SMS services, held back by affordability and low digital literacy in rural areas.
With the impact of the 2024 tariff hikes largely played out, Indian telecom operators are now focused on encouraging users to move to higher-value mobile plans.
Both Airtel and rival Reliance Jio scrapped their entry-level 4G and 5G packs in the quarter to push customers towards pricier, higher-data options.
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Last month, Jio reported an ARPU of 211.4 rupees for the quarter and a 12 per cent rise in profit.
Telecom firms have been locked in intense competition for market share since Jio’s entry in 2017, with the Reliance group company overtaking peers to command the largest user base of 506.4 million.
Airtel’s India user base rose 10.6 per cent year on year to about 450 million as of Sep 30.
Its overall revenue climbed 25.7 per cent to 521.45 billion rupees, including sales from telecom infrastructure provider Indus Towers, in which Airtel bought a majority stake last year. Airtel began consolidating Indus’s numbers from the March 2025 quarter onwards.
Total costs rose 15 per cent due to a 26.3 per cent spike in network expenses.
Smaller rival Vodafone Idea is yet to report results. REUTERS
