Airtel to invest Rs 14,667 cr in India, South Asia

The country's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel will invest around Rs 14,667 crore ($2.2 billion) in the Indian and south Asian markets in the current financial year (FY17), as it looks to strengthen network capabilities.

The firm has already made a capital expenditure of Rs 4,133 crore in the first quarter of FY17.

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• The firm has already made a capital expenditure of Rs 4,133 cr in Q1FY17
• Airtel said, it had a capex outflow of Rs 15,300 cr in India and South Asia and Rs 5,100 cr in Africa in FY16
• For FY17, it has given a guidance of Rs 14,700 cr capex in India and South Asia and Rs 4,700 crore in Africa

In an investor presentation that was uploaded on the BSE website on Thursday, Airtel said it had a capex outflow of about Rs 15,334 crore ($2.3 billion) in India and South Asia and around Rs 5,140 crore ($771 million) in Africa in FY16. For FY17, it has given a guidance of around Rs 14,667 crore capex in India and South Asia and around Rs 4,667 crore in Africa.

Airtel had last year announced to invest Rs 60,000 crore in three years to upgrade its network to provide better quality services to customers.

The company said it has got the fastest growing data business in India with annualised revenues of around Rs 14,134 crore and data usage per customer grew 28 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y).

Data as a percentage of mobile revenues in India stood at 23.7 per cent as in first quarter of FY17. Even the voice segment has shown significant growth with minutes carried over the network rising by 8.3 per cent y-o-y in India. Airtel carries 1.41 trillion minutes on its network.

The company is a leader in India with revenue market share of 32 per cent as of Q4 of FY16. Airtel is present in 18 countries, with consolidated revenues of around Rs 98,138 crore in 2016.