Bharti Airtel ended the FY 2005-06 with a revenue of Rs
11,663 crore, as against Rs 8,003 crore in the previous fiscal, a growth of
around 46%. The net profit stood at Rs 2,258 crore, up 51% over FY 2004-05. The
cash profit for the year was Rs 4,095 crore, up 46% from last year.Â
The total customer base of Bharti grew 77% to about 20.9 mn
during FY 2005-06. Bharti continued to maintain its leadership position in
mobile services, with a market share of 21.5% as on March 31, 2006.Â
The company's subscriber base grew 8.6 mn during the year under review.
BHARTI |
On the wireless front, Bharti's subscriber base stood at
19.5 mn, up from 10.9 mn in FY 2004-05. Out of this, a good 82.7% were pre-paid
customers. Thanks to fall in tariff, the ARPU declined by 12% to reach Rs 442.
Non-voice revenue was 10.7% of the total revenue, while SMS formed 6.8%. With
the launch of its mobile service in Assam, Bharti became the first private
service provider to have its footprints in all 23 circles of the country.
The total fixed line and broadband services subscriber base
grew by 57% to reach 1.3 mn and broadband comprised a mere 0.3 mn. This figure
also includes a majority of 128 kbps customers, which according to the Broadband
Policy definition does qualify to be broadband service. The ARPU from fixed and
broadband services continues to be more than double the mobile ARPU. It stood at
1,063, showing a decline of 14% over the previous year.
HIGHLIGHTS |
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Bharti underwent major restructuring, aimed at aligning its
entire telecom business. Manoj Kohli was given the role to lead the unified
management structure of Bharti Airtel, the newly created entity. The year was
also significant for the company, as it joined hands with IBM to offer managed
services to enterprises in India. The companies agreed to jointly develop and
market IT and telecom solutions for the Indian enterprise market under the
'Joint-Go-To-Market Program'. The initiative is aimed at helping customers
achieve continuous access to their enterprise information and critical business
processes. The first phase will see the launch of managed hosting, business
resiliency, and continuity services. The services are targeted at BFSI,
manufacturing, and the government.
Bharti also launched one lakh 'Easy Music' shop
allowing subscribers to download songs of their choice. The company also
expanded its BlackBerry product portfolio, targeted at high-end enterprise
customers. Delhi did Bharti proud by becoming the first metro to have 2 mn
mobile customers.
'The best of Bharti has come a It has been
What's going to be What were the What is going to be What is your rural What kind of |
In a major development with long-term financial
repercussions, Vodafone entered into an agreement with Bharti marking the entry
of the world's largest telco in India. Vodafone offered to invest
approximately Rs 6,700 crore to acquire around 10% stake in Bharti, thus
becoming the single largest investor in the country so far. With this, Warburg
Pincus made a complete exit from Bharti.
If everything goes according to the plan and spectrum
allocation issue is sorted out, Bharti would launch its 3G services in 2007. The
other new service in the pipeline is IPTV, the trials for which are currently
on.