International telecoms company, Bharti Airtel has announced a 4 percent rise in the fourth-quarter revenues made by its international operations in Africa and South Asia, rising to USD 1.2 billion, with growth held back by political instability in Bangladesh. EBITDA improved 2 percent to USD 306 million.
Figures released by the company showed that South Asia activities moved to a positive EBITDA of USD5 million and EBITDA in Africa was unchanged at USD 300 million on higher energy and site costs and after the company increased promotions and marketing spend, especially for mobile money services. Capex across the international activities rose just 3 percent, to USD 174 million.
The company also recorded increase in its mobile customer base to 275.25 million at year-end, up 3 percent from the end of September and 10 percent more than end-2012.
Mobile voice traffic was up 1 percent on a sequential basis, and non-voice services increased to 26.1 percent of revenues in Q4 from 25.0 percent in Q3.
Airtel said its mobile internet revenues more than doubled year-on-year to INR 17.4 billion, accounting for around a third of its revenue growth in the quarter.
In Africa, customer growth slowed to 1.929 million net additions, for a total base of 68.307 million at year-end. Monthly churn increased slightly to 6.7 percent, and ARPU was up 1 percent from the previous quarter to USD 5.8. Non-voice services grew to 19.6 percent of revenues from 17.6 percent in the previous quarter, and the number of data customers was up 12 percent over the same period to 19.6 million.
Telecompaper reported that Airtel’s data traffic rose 28 percent on a sequential basis and 120 percent year-on-year to 5.38 billion MB. Mobile money subscribers jumped by over 50 percent compared to September, to reach 2.73 million at year-end.
