Jio effect: Bharti Airtel's profits at 15-year low

India's telecom giant Bharti Airtel Ltd today posted its lowest quarterly profit in 15 years as the high-profile price war with Mukesh Ambani-led Jio in the past year finally began to show up in the bottomline.

The company posted a 78 per cent drop to register net profit of 83 crore compared to Rs 373 crore net profit in the quarter ending March a year ago.

The Sunil Mittal-led telecom company also witnessed a 10.5 per cent drop in net revenue of 19,634 crore in the fourth quarter of 2017-18 compared to Rs 21,935 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Not just the tariff war, Airtel was also hit because of its decision to cut international termination charges (ITC) from 53 paise to 30 paise.

"The telecom industry continues to witness below cost, artificially suppressed pricing," Gopal Vittal, Bharti Airtel`s managing director and chief executive for India and South Asia, said.

For the full fiscal year ending March 2018, Airtel's net profit was 1,099 crore which is over 71 per cent lower than Rs 3,800 crore in FY 2016-17.