Airtel to invest USD 3 bn in FY16; to end 3G roaming pacts

Telecom major Bharti Airtel today said it has lined up an investment of USD 3 billion, mostly for Indian and South Asian businesses, in this financial year.

The company also announced termination of its controversial 3G intra-circle roaming agreements with Vodafone and Idea in various circles, except Kerala, by the end of 2015-16 fiscal.

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During a company's earnings call, Bharti Airtel Global Chief Financial Officer B Srikanth said, "We have capex guidance of about USD 3 billion this fiscal.

Of this about USD 700-800 million is for Africa and rest is for India and South Asia." Also, the telecom giant will end its controversial 3G intra-circle roaming agreements with other operators by the end of the fiscal.

"We are waiting for spectrum to be allocated. Definitely before the year goes out we will be rolling out 3G in our gap circles and consequently we will phase out 3G ICR," Bharti Airtel CFO for India Nilanjan Roy said.

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Srikanth said that in recent spectrum auction, the company gained pan-India capability for 3G and 4G services. "We have now have capability to deploy premium 3G service in 900 Mhz across 10 circles which we will be rolling out in next 1-2 years," he said.

The company already held 3G spectrum across 13 out of 22 telecom circles in the country. In the March auction, Airtel expanded its 3G spectrum footprint in six more service areas -- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa, 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 the circle where they do not have the required frequencies.

The Department of Telecom has called these 3G ICR agreements illegal. There was a split judgement on this matter at telecom tribunal TDSAT and the matter is now sub-judice before the Supreme Court.

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

Srikanth said that company is divesting from tower assets in Africa and is working to complete the process in 12 remaining African countries. "We will be able to share more details by end of first quarter," he said.

Bharti Airtel yesterday reported a 30.5 per cent jump in March quarter net profit at Rs 1,255 crore, buoyed by a robust customer growth and rise in mobile data revenue.

The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company had reported a net profit of Rs 962 crore for the corresponding period last year. Total revenue of the firm rose 3.6 per cent to Rs 23,016 crore for the reported quarter as compared with Rs 22,219 crore in the year-ago period.

Airtel has reported widening of net loss for Africa widened to USD 183 million for the March quarter as compared to USD 105 million in the year-ago period. Shares of Bharti Airtel closed at Rs 387.5 a piece, down by 3.32 per cent compared to previous close, at BSE today.

Source: PTI