Jio is badgering Airtel

Jio is eating Airtel’s profit

4th quarter results are out. Airtel is bleeding in India. Jio is lapping up subscribers. Analysts see two sides of the coin.

Bad news: Bleeding Airtel

• Profit fell by 39%, revenue by 12%.
• Airtel still does not have 100 million mobile internet subscribers. All Jio subscribers ( more than 160 million) are on mobile internet by default.
• Only 28% of Airtel’s user-base uses internet. 100% of Jio uses internet.
• Only 25% of mobile internet connections ( 22million) are broadband. Jio’s more than 160 million are on broadband.
• They have lot to catch up. They plan to do a capital expenditure of $3.5bn in FY19.
• Source: Medianama + ET + Mint

Good News: Comeback + profitable

“It is phenomenal the way Airtel has made a comeback… Airtel is the only company that has withstood Reliance’s onslaught,” — Factor Daily

• INR 20,000 crore revenue in Africa with INR 699 crore worth of profit. — ET
• Worth reading: detailed deep dive by Ken ( Subscription only).