To recall, almost all the leading telecom companies in India, recently introduced a tariff hike in the country. However, it looks like it might not be the end of it. Airtel CEO, Gopal Vittal, hints that there can be another tariff hike for the teleco this year. Moreover, it might once again take lead in hiking mobile call and services rates this year. As it looks to increase average revenue per user to Rs. 200, a top official of the company said.
Last year, Airtel was the first telecom player to raise mobile services rates in the range of 18-25 per cent in November. But this next possible hike could be due to cost pressures and as it is preparing for 5G service rollout. According to him, it could happen after three to four months depending upon subscriber growth and competitive dynamics. “We would not hesitate to take the lead in hiking tariffs,” he said while hoping average revenue per user (ARPU) to rise from the current Rs. 163 to Rs. 200.
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Furthermore, Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported a 2.8 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit. With respect to its Rs. 830 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2021, compared to Rs. 854 crore in the same period a year ago. The consolidated revenue of Bharti Airtel increased by 12.6 per cent to Rs. 29,867 crore during the reported quarter from Rs. 26,518 crore in the December 2020 quarter.
As per Vittal, people cannot use more than 17GB or 18GB of data in a month, which, in itself, has seen a growth of around 11.7-per cent compared to last year. Also, since schools, offices, and more such institutions are now opening, bandwidth consumption will also decline simultaneously. Vittal also said that the company will use $300 million (about Rs 2,250 crore) for supporting device upgradation, network, and cloud business. One of the big levers is device upgradation, the second is a network, and the third is a cloud.
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Airtel is taking a slew of measures to reduce costs and complexities including the use of artificial intelligence to lower energy costs and renegotiation of telecom tower rents.
