NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported fourth successive quarterly decline in profit as rising competition from Reliance Jio 's aggressive tariffs hit the company hard. Bharti Airtel's net profit was down by 55% in October-December of 2016-17 and 5% in July-September.Airtel also recorded a 14% fall in consolidated revenues in Q1, which stood at Rs 21,958 crore against Rs 25,546 crore in the first quarter of 2016-17. The most worrisome factor is net realisation from voice and data has been declining sharply, while overall consumption is growing.Voice usage per customer grew by 22% in Q1, but realisation (earning) slipped by 34%. And, realisation from data slipped by 73% even as consumption moved up by 189%. Bharti Airtel has said operators should be given more time to pay outstanding for spectrum purchase, which has found backing from an inter-ministerial group looking into woes of the sector.

Source: Times of India July 25, 2017 12:27 UTC