Airtel set to invest $3 billion in FY16

Will end 3G roaming pacts by March '16; plans 4G services in various circles this year

Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest telecom service provider, is to invest $3 billion (nearly Rs 19,000 crore) for expansion in India and abroad this financial year.

It is to also end its intra-circle roaming agreements for third-generation (3G) services with Vodafone and Idea, except in the Kerala circle, by the end of the financial year, once the government allots spectrum, said global chief financial officer B Srikanth.

Of the $3 billion for expansion, $700-800 million is for Africa. The rest is for India and South Asia, he said.

In a spectrum auction concluded last month, Bharti acquired pan-India capability for 3G and 4G services. "We have now the capability to deploy premium 3G service in 900 MHz across 10 circles, which we will be rolling out in the next one to two years," said Nilanjan Roy, the CFO for India.

It already had 3G spectrum across 13 of the country's 22 telecom circles. In the March auction, the company expanded its 3G spectrum footprint in six more service areas -- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh (East), Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

Airtel, Idea and Vodafone have signed 3G intra-circle roaming agreements, to use 3G spectrum of one another in circles where they do not have the required frequencies. The department of telecom said these agreements were illegal. The matter went to TDSAT, the telecom tribunal, which was split on the verdict. The matter is now before the Supreme Court.

Also, the company plans 4G services across various circles in this financial year. "Since 2010, in five separate auctions, the company has acquired spectrum valued at Rs 68,099 crore," Srikanth said.

He said they were divesting from tower assets in Africa and working to complete the process in 12 countries there. "We will be able to share more details by the end of the first quarter," he said.

On Tuesday, Bharti Airtel reported a 30.5 per cent jump in net profit for the March quarter to Rs 1,255 crore, buoyed by robust customer growth and rise in mobile data revenue. Total revenue rose 3.6 per cent to Rs 23,016 crore for the quarter.

However, the Africa business continued to weigh heavy on the company, with widened losses and declining revenues. For the quarter ended March, losses in Africa widened to Rs 1,138 crore against Rs 645 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. For the full year, 2014-15, the losses were Rs 3,548 crore against Rs 1,855 crore for 2013-14. Africa revenues declined to Rs 6,215 crore for the March quarter, against Rs 7,062 crore for the same quarter a year before. For FY15, revenue from Africa was Rs 26,907 crore, against Rs 27,248 crore for FY14.