Airtel’s Vittal pushes Trai to fix floor price speedily, hopes for ARPU to touch Rs200 near term

Bharti Airtel’s stock price hit an all-time high, rising over 12% intra-day, a day after the telco’s India mobile business delivered robust growth in the March quarter, underlined by a 14% sequential jump in average revenue per user (ARPU), which Chief Executive Gopal Vittal expects will grow further in the short-term.

Speaking at an earnings call on Tuesday, Vittal indicated Airtel’s strategy for the upcoming 4G spectrum sale, saying the carrier needs to improve its 4G airwave holdings by adding pan-India sub-GHz spectrum. He noted that gaps remained on this score in key challenger markets such as Kerala, UP-West and Haryana. His comments came even as the telecom department is poised to appoint an auctioneer on May 22 for the next 4G spectrum sale likely around October.