Bharti Airtel Chief Executive Officer Gopal Vittal on Wednesday said that tariff rates in the country’s telecom industry are “very low” compared to other countries in the world. They advocated increasing the fee rates to increase the return ratio i.e. mobile recharge can be expensive.
Briefing on Airtel’s fourth quarter financial results, Vittal said he was happy to see Vodafone Idea’s recent capital increase. He said that with three private companies operating in the market, people in the country will get good telecom services.
He said that the return that the industry needs in effect is based on the increase in the fee rate. This is actually at the core of today’s problem. Our prices and duty rates are very low compared to anywhere else in the world. Therefore, increasing the fee rate is necessary to improve the return ratio…it doesn’t matter which technology it comes from.
On rival Vodafone Idea’s (VIL) big fundraising, Vittal said he was happy to see that VIL had raised the money and wished them all the best. He said that if there are three companies in India, people can get good services.
Meanwhile, we should keep in mind that this is a competitive market. Vittal said that there are fluctuations in the volatile telecom market. “To do well in the long run you have to be on top of your work in terms of execution.”
Airtel on Tuesday said its consolidated profit fell 31 percent to Rs 2,072 crore in the March quarter, mainly due to the depreciation of the Nigerian currency, the naira.
The Sunil Mittal-led telecom company’s consolidated revenue rose 4.4 per cent to Rs 37,599.1 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 36,009 crore a year ago. Bharti Airtel’s average revenue per customer (ARPU) increased by 8 percent year-on-year to Rs 209. It was Rs 193 in the same quarter a year ago. It was Rs 208 in the quarter ended December 2023.
