A telco's call to action

'In a do-or-die effort, Mr Mittal's target is an ARPU of at least Rs 200 by the end of this financial year', says the author

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal’s clarion call for a tariff hike earlier this week reinforced the relevance of ARPU in any telecom narrative. A key metric to describe the average revenue per user in a month, ARPU has captured the essence of the industry over the years ever since wireless came into our lives. In a do-or-die effort, Mr Mittal’s target is an ARPU of at least Rs 200 by the end of this financial year and Rs 300 in the near future, up from the measly Rs 146 a month currently. In a system where at least 35 per