Bharti Airtel posts 13% rise in quarterly revenue, helped by tariff hikes

Indian wireless carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd reported on Tuesday a 13% rise in its second-quarter revenue, boosted by tariff hikes and additions in its subscriber base.
 

The company's consolidated revenue from operations was 283.26 billion rupees ($3.79 billion) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with Rs 250.60 billion a year ago, according to its exchange filing. Analysts on average had expected revenue of Rs 277.73 billion.

Airtel has benefited from higher user additions and a jump in data usage due to remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the company had scrapped in July its entry-level prepaid recharge of 49 rupees and set the base plan at 79 rupees.

Its net profit for the second quarter was 11.34 billion rupees, compared with a loss of 7.63 billion rupees in the same period last year. With focus on its enterprise business, Airtel had said in September it would invest Rs 50 billion to expand its data centre business to meet customer demand in and around India.