Bharti Airtel's Q2 India mobile revenue up 7% at Rs 10,981 cr; ARPU slips

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel's revenue from India mobile services rose 7 per cent year-on-year during the September 2019 quarter to Rs 10,981.4 crore, as the subscriber base stood at 279.4 million, according to a regulatory filing by the company.

Its customer base for India mobile services represented a 15 per cent fall over the year-ago period, but seen on a sequential basis, it was 0.9 per cent higher than June quarter.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) for mobile services -- a key metrics for telecom companies -- slipped marginally to Rs 128 against Rs 129 in the previous sequential quarter.

The company released its operating highlights for the three months ended September 2019 in a regulatory filing to the BSE, but postponed the release of its Q2 earnings to November 14 citing the uncertainty that has arisen in the sector, in the wake of the recent SC ruling on definition of telecom revenue.

In fact, Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal and his brother Rajan Mittal had on Monday met Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash in the aftermath of the October 24 Supreme Court order that accepted the government's way of calculating revenues of the companies, based on which statutory dues to exchequer are calculated.

According to the DoT's calculations, Bharti Airtel faces a liability of around Rs 42,000 crore after including licence fees and spectrum usage charges, while Vodafone-Idea may have to pay about Rs 40,000 crore.

The telcos are pitching for a waiver of interest and penalties on the unpaid amount, as well as staggering payment of principal licence fee over 10 years, sources said.

Meanwhile, the government has constituted a Committee of Secretaries to work out a financial bailout package that may include lowering of spectrum charges as well as ending the era of free mobile phone calls and dirt cheap data.

The Committee of Secretaries, headed by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, has been asked to examine "all aspects" of "financial stress" faced by service providers such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd and suggest measures to mitigate them, sources in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said.