According to the Management of Airtel,
Data revenue growth challenges have emerged because smart?phone penetration is not increasing at a faster pace. Quarterly smart?phone addition of around 25mn is mostly replacement demand. Data pricing and realisations are not a major deterrent as long as revenues will grow; this is because Bharti has enough capacity to accommodate increased data usage. While it has cut prices on large data packs, realisations on 1GB packs have been stable.
India data revenue growth (5% qoq, 35% yoy) was lower than estimates. Data volume increased by 8% qoq, 55% yoy, while realisation declined 2.5% qoq and 13% yoy. Data volume growth in Q1 was the lowest in the last four years. Note this is on a Low Base and struggling to Grow, imagine the fate when Reliance Jio launches full fledged war :-)
