Bharti Airtel posts highest-ever quarterly revenue on higher tariffs, data usage

Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd reported its highest ever quarterly consolidated revenue on Tuesday, driven by higher tariffs and a rise in data usage from a coronavirus-fuelled shift to remote working.

Indian telecom operators, grappling with low tariffs due to a price war that ensued after Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio entered the space, hiked prices last year as they were ordered to pay 920 billion rupees ($12.44 billion) in dues to the government.

That helped the company's quarterly consolidated revenue rise 22% to 257.85 billion rupees.

The average revenue per user at India's second-largest telecom operator rose to 162 rupees for the quarter, from 128 rupees a year earlier.

The company's 4G data customers rose by 14.4 million to 152.7 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Consolidated loss for the quarter ended Sept. 30 came in at 7.63 billion rupees, compared with a loss of 230.45 billion rupees a year earlier.