Airtel reports strong growth across domestic, international markets

India’s Bharti Airtel group has booked revenues of INR219.39 billion (USD3.49 billion) for the three months ended 31 December 2013, up 13.3% year-on-year, boosted by strong growth in its domestic, African and South Asian markets. EBITDA for the group rose by 22.8% to INR70.93 billon, whilst net profits more than doubled to INR6.10 billion from INR2.84 billion a year earlier. Airtel’s total customer base expanded by 9.6% to 287.41 million, including 198.51 million mobile subscribers in India and 68.31 million wireless users across its 17 African operations. In its domestic market, the cellco’s mobile data users increased by 31% y-o-y to 54.42 million, of which 9.49 million were 3G subscribers (+83%). Monthly data ARPU also grew to INR75 from INR47 in the year-ago period, with data service contributing 10.3% of all mobile service revenues, compared to 5.7% twelve months earlier.