On the call, the telecom company's CEO highlighted Airtel's 5G trials, defended daily data limits, and hoped that the government would provide some relief to the industry. Key Takeaways Airtel's India revenues stood at Rs 18,828 crore in Q1 FY 2022, up 19.2% Year over Year without counting the impact of the Interconnect Usage Charge. On the same basis, India's mobile revenues were up 21.9% YoY and stood at Rs 14,305 crore. Monthly data consumption per user is up by 13.7% to 18.5GB. In the absence of price hikes for prepaid users, the Average Revenue Per User has only grown from Rs 138 to Rs 146 YoY. Consolidated net income stood at Rs 266 crore, compared to a loss of Rs 430 crore in the same quarter in the last year. Why it matters? Even as Airtel continues posting increasingly promising profits, the risk of the telecom market becoming a duopoly looms high. There is talk of financial stress at Vodafone Idea; the Economic Times for instance has reported on executives trying to assuage employees and investors on these concerns, but there remains no capital infusion insight. Even Airtel is worried (see below) about the state of the telecom market with just two private players; that is in spite of the fact that Airtel's numbers appear to be recovering quite nicely since the disruptive entry of Reliance Jio. Earnings call takeaways Here are some highlights from the CEO of Bharti Airtel (India) and South Asia Gopal Vittal during the earnings call…
