Premium users, 5G push lift Airtel Arpu to industry high

The telco widens the gap with Jio as strong data usage and enterprise rebound drive growth

- Jatin Grover

Bharti Airtel, India's secondlargest telecom operator by market share, pulled further ahead of its larger peer Reliance Jio in what it earns from each customer during the September quarter, buoyed by premium customers joining its network and a steady focus on better service quality.

Airtel, which has an industry-leading average revenue per user (Arpu) of ₹256 per month, saw a 2.4% sequential increase compared to Jio's 1.2% growth, which took its Arpu to ₹211.4 at the end of September quarter. Arpu is an important measure for telecom companies, showing the average revenue they get from each user-the higher it is, the stronger the business.

On Monday, the Sunil Bharti Mittalled telecom operator reported its September-quarter results. The company reported strong earnings driven by a surge in mobile data consumption, an expanding subscriber base and a recovery in the enterprise segment-Airtel Business-after three quarters of a fall in revenue. Airtel Business, which houses the enterprise connectivity solutions including data centres, cloud and internet of things (IOT) solutions, saw a sequential rise after three straight quarters of decline as the company exited the low-margin wholesale commodity voice and messaging business.