Airtel Posts Loss Of Rs. 1,035 Crore In Q3 2019

Telecom major Airtel has reported a loss of Rs. 1,035 crore for the quarter that ended December 31, as the company wants to pay the AGR dues to the government. The company has posted a profit of Rs. 86 crore in Q3 2019. In addition, Vodafone-Idea, Airtel, and Tata Teleservices have filed their review petition in the Supreme Court, so that they can get an extension to pay their dues.

However, its revenue rises by 8.5 percent to Rs. 21,947 crore as against Rs. 20,231 crore for the same period a year earlier. "During the quarter ended December 31, 2019, the group has continued to recognize, in the same manner, its obligations under the judgments/orders. Accordingly, during the quarter, the group has further recorded interest of Rs. 1,048.1 crore, which has been presented as an exceptional item," the company said.

In December, the company has increased tariffs by 40 percent and raised monthly recharge tariffs to Rs. 45 from Rs. 23. "While tariff revision undertaken in December 2019 is a welcome step towards repairing the financial health of the industry, we believe tariffs must go up further for enabling the industry to invest in emerging technologies," Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Airtel has managed to increase its ARPU in Q3 2020 to Rs. 135 from Rs.128 in Q2 2020. This also means that Airtel has managed to beat Reliance Jio, as the latter get Rs. 128.4 in December.

Apart from that, the company is shutting down its 3G business, to increase its 4G network in India. Besides, its data traffic increases to 5,166 petabytes as against 2,996 petabytes. The company has also managed to achieve 12.38 crore 4G customers, in Q3, as compared to its 7.71 crore users in Q3 of the last financial year.