August 4 (Reuters) - India's second-largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel posted a 37.3% rise in first quarter profit on Tuesday, driven by subscriber additions and users upgrading to costlier plans.
The company's consolidated net profit rose to 81.67 billion rupees ($856.28 million) for the quarter ended June 30, from 59.48 billion rupees a year ago.
India's telecom operators have been relying on users upgrading to higher-value plans to boost average revenue per user (ARPU) - a key telecom metric - with no broad-based tariff hikes since July 2024.
Airtel and market leader Reliance Jio revised select recharge plans and expanded premium offerings to encourage higher spending and migration to 4G and 5G services.
Airtel's industry-leading ARPU rose 5.6% year-on-year to 264 rupees during the first quarter, helped by a 7.5% increase in its 4G and 5G user base.
India's telecom sector has witnessed intense competition since Jio's entry in 2016, with the Reliance unit overtaking peers to command the country's largest user base.
Some analysts expect another round of tariff increases of 12%–15% in the coming months, which could provide a further boost to the industry ARPU.
Airtel's India user base grew 12.8% year-on-year to about 492 million as of June 30, lagging behind Jio's 533.3 million.
Revenue from Airtel's Africa business, which operates in 14 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and accounts for over a quarter of group revenue, rose 45.4%.
Its overall revenue rose 18.4% to 585.39 billion indian rupees ($6.14 billion), above analysts' expectation of 573.1 billion rupees.
Last month, rival Jio reported a 6.8% rise in quarterly profit. Smaller rival Vodafone Idea has yet to post results.
($1 = 95.3775 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee
Source: Reuters