In its financial results for the third quarter period ended December 31, 2014, telecommunications company Bharti Airtel has recorded a consolidated 61.9 per cent growth in Mobile data revenue, a growth that has been attributed to the increase in data usage across Airtel present countries.
The telecom also recorded that revenues from mobile data are now contributing up to more than 85 per cent of the incremental revenues of the company, with total revenues increasing by 5.8 per cent year-on-year.
In the period under review, the overall customer base for the 20 countries that Airtel network is present stood at 312.9 million, which translates to an 8.9 per cent growth from the previous year.
Africa alone recorded a 3.9 per cent growth in revenue, with data revenues amounting to 116 Million Dollars, which is a significant growth from the previous year of 34.9 per cent. The growth in data revenue is again attributed to the increase in the number of customers subscribed to Airtel data.
It is not a secret that Africa’s data usage is growing tremendously, especially with the uptake of mobile phones that are bringing more people online on their preferred network. According to Airtel’s results, data revenues contribute to 10.5 per cent of overall Africa revenues.
As it records increments in revenues so has the telecom recorded increment in debts, which now stand at 10.5 Million Dollars. A situation that Airtel blames on deferred payments for its spectrums. The telco has been selling its infrastructure to companies in efforts to pay out its debts, but it seems it has a long way towards fulfilling that.
“Airtel has continued to grow in Q3 despite economic turmoil in several commodity-rich countries. We have maintained our focus on growing customer base and topline in a cost-efficient manner,” said Christian de Faria, MD and CEO for Airtel Africa.
He added that the depreciation in most African currencies, especially that of Nigeria had depressed the reported results. “We are hopeful that the economies and wallet spends will quickly adjust to the new situation,” de Faria added, commenting on the depreciated currencies.
With mobile subscriptions registering growth in countries across Africa, Airtel has benefited to an extent, registering a 4.5 percentage uptake of mobile services in Africa alone, from the previous second quarter ending September, 2014.
