Idea Cellular said its Q4 revenue dropped to an unforeseen level to Rs 81,261 million, a sequential decline of 6.2 percent on the back of 6.9 percent drop in Q3 FY 2017. The quarterly revenue of Idea Cellular in Q4 fiscal 2016 was Rs 94,783 million.
The Aditya Birla group company achieved 1.4 percent quarterly growth in its EBITDA to Rs 21,965 million with an EBITDA margin of 27 percent in Q4 due to focused cost optimisation drive and forex gain during the quarter.
Idea had reduced its voice rate by 12.5 percent to 25.9 paisa per minute against 29.6 paisa in Q3 to meet free calls from Reliance Jio.
Idea Cellular had dropped its mobile data rate by 27.6 percent to 11.5 paisa per MB against 15.9 paisa in Q3FY17. Voice minutes grew by 10.3 percent to 231.4 billion minutes against 209.8 billion minutes in Q3FY17.
Idea Cellular’s mobile data business lost 6.4 million mobile data customers in Q4 on the back of 5.5 million loss in Q3. Mobile data customer base of Idea Cellular has dipped to 42.2 million in Q4 from 48.6 million in Q3.
How Idea revenue dropped
3G subscribers fell to 30.4 million in Q4 from 32.6 million in Q3.
Total data subscribers dipped to 42.23 million from 48.58 million.
Total data volume increased to 127,014 million MB from 108,843 million MB.
Blended ARPU fell to Rs 142 from Rs 157.
Voice ARPU decreased to Rs 107 from Rs 114.
Data ARPU fell to INR 110 from Rs 111.
Average Minutes of Use per User was 412 was 385.
Average Realisation per Minute (ARPM) was 34.5 paisa against 40.7.
Data as a % of service revenue fell to 18.3 percent from 20.2 percent.
Non-Data VAS as a % of service revenue was 6.6 percent against 7 percent.
Mobile data volume grew 16.7 percent to 127 billion MB (2G+3G+4G). The per subscriber data usage grew 36.2 percent to 957 MB against 703 MB in Q3 but data ARPU for data subscribers (2G+3G+4G) remained flat in Q4FY17 at Rs 110 against Rs 111 in Q3.
The non voice revenue (including data) contribution to overall service revenue fell to 24.9 percent as mobile data revenue contribution declined to 18.3 percent from 20.2 percent in Q3.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
