Airtel Reports Its First Quarterly Loss In 16 Years

On Thursday, Bharati Airtel Ltd posted a massive loss of Rs 2,866 crore for the June-ended quarter. In the same period last year, it posted a profit of Rs 97.80 crore. It is the company's first quarterly loss in 16 years.

The telecom operator's consolidated revenue from operations rose by 4.7 percent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 20,738 crore.

Number of customers fell from 45.66 crore in June 2018 to 40.37 crore in June 2019. ARPU (average revenue per user) for the quarter was Rs 129 as against Rs 105 in the same quarter of the previous year and Rs 123 in the March quarter.

Telecom operators in India, including Bharati Airtel have been struggling to grow profits despite higher data and voice consumption after the entry of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio.

Commenting on the earnings, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel said the first quarter of the year has begun with a "healthy and equitable growth across all our lines of businesses".

"Headline pricing remained stable, albeit at low levels. We continue to remain focused on providing value to customers through our rewards platform, Airtel Thanks. This has led to the second consecutive quarter of ARPU increase," he said.