Indus Towers: Data Gains

The merger with Bharti Infratel and a sharp rise in mobile data usage aided the revenue growth of the world's second-largest telecom tower company.

- ANUP JAYARAM

INDIA'S LEADING TELECOM tower company, Indus Towers created after the merger of Bharti Infratel with the erstwhile Indus Towers - grew at a tearing pace during FY22. Net revenues nearly doubled to ₹27,717 crore, while profit rose 68.65% to ₹6,373 crore, making it India's 35th most profitable company this year. With 188,447 towers and 335,791 co-locations, Indus is the second-largest telecom tower company globally outside of China after American Tower Corporation (223,000 towers).

The sharp rise in total income helped Indus rise 34 ranks to 67 in the Fortune 500 India listing this year. The company provides passive telecom infrastructure and deploys, owns, and manages telecom towers and communication structures, for mobile operators.

The company did not respond to queries from Fortune India.

There are two reasons driving the growth in Indus Towers. First, there has been a sharp upsurge in mobile data usage over the past two years in the country as people were locked down at home due to the pandemic. Average data traffic per smartphone in India at 20GB per month in 2021 is among the highest in the world and is expected to touch 50GB a month in 2027, growing at a CAGR of 16% according to the Ericsson Mobility Report, 2022. Some of that future growth will be driven by the adoption of 5G services, which has just been launched in the country.