Telecom major Bharti Airtel reported a surprise 27 percent sequential decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 829.6 crore for the quarter ended December (Q3FY22). Its consolidated revenue, however, rose 5.4 percent on-quarter to Rs 29,866 crore.
Delving deeper into the earnings report, there are a few interesting developments that need to be noted -
Stagnant mobile base
Overall, the company's Indian mobile user base saw a decline of 0.6 million users during the period. It said that the user base continued to stagnate and decline in two out of the three quarters.
Around 28 million customers left Bharti Airtel during the decline and 8.7% of the total user base was churned out in a single quarter.
Also Read: Bharti Airtel Q3 Results | Consolidated net falls 27% QoQ to Rs 829.6 crore, misses estimate
Tariff hikes
The telecom company said it witnessed a decline in users following the announcement of tariff hikes for its mobile plans in November. The telecom giant said this could be due to the quality of the subscriber base or challenges in monetising its new plans.
Data usage on mobile also declined
Bharti Airtel's findings also showed that the users who remained with the company started using mobile data less. The company once again cited the type of customers, hinting that they may have more non-premium members.
Alternatively, Airtel also pointed at the quality of its networks but did not confirm that it was solely responsible for the decline.
Also Read: What should investors do with Bharti Airtel after Q3 results; buy, sell or hold?
Airtel's DTH services also reported high churn rates
The company's DTH user base also suffered, as 6.3% of the users churned out during the period. Last quarter, Airtel reported churn rates of 6.6%.
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