Bharti Airtel Ltd on Monday reported a net profit of Rs 2,978.9 crore in the second quarter of the Financial Year (FY) 23.

The telecom major said it posted consolidated revenue of Rs 34,728.7 crore for Q2FY23 as against Rs 28,435.2 crore in Q2FY22. The revenue increased by 22 per cent in comparison to the same period in FY22

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The net profit also grew significantly from 1,998.1 crore in Q2FY22 to Rs 2,978.9 crore in Q2FY23.

The company’s consolidated revenue from operations was 345.27 billion Indian rupees ($4.17 billion) for the three months ended September 30, compared with 283.26 billion rupees a year ago.

The company said its average revenue per user for the quarter under review stood at Rs 190 as compared to Rs 153 in Q2’22 owing to feature phone to smartphone upgradation and data monetisation.

Bharti Airtel’s postpaid customer base stood at 31.6 million and 17.8 million for 4G service.

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), a key performance indicator for telecom companies, continues to be the best in the industry, with average data usage per data customer at 20.3 GBs/month and voice usage per customer at 1,082 mins/month.

Airtel’s ARPU increased 3.8% sequentially and a roughly 24% year-on-year increase.

Earlier this month Reliance Jio had reported less than 1% increase in ARPU sequentially at Rs 177.2 for the quarter.

MD and CEO, India & South Asia, Gopal Vittal said: “We are now rolling out 5G and are confident that Airtel 5G Plus will deliver the best experience in India while being kinder to the environment.”

Vittal said the low return on capital employed is a matter of concern and there is a need for tariff correction as the pricing is the lowest in the world and large investments are required to drive digital adoption in India.

During the quarter under review, the company increased its tower strength by about 8,000 towers and also became the first telecom operator in the country to roll out 5G service in eight Indian cities.

Bharti Airtel plans to cover all of the urban and key rural areas of India by March 2024.

(with inputs from Agencies)