How three top telecom network operators Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India performed in the Indian 3G market.
Vodafone India said its 3G subscriber base increased 75 percent to 23.8 million in September 2015 from 13.6 million in September 2014. Idea Cellular’s 3G subscriber base rose to 24.5 million from in Q2 fiscal 2016 from 21.3 million in Q1 fiscal 2016. Airtel’s 3G subscriber base grew to 23.8 million from 21.36 million. Airtel does not talk about 3G ARPU. Its data ARPU increased to Rs 193 from Rs 181. Data usage of Airtel customers increased to 765 MB per user from 706 MB.
3G data subscribers of Idea Cellular rose to 19.5 million from 16.6 million. 3G data volume of Idea Cellular grew to 43,051 million MB from 36,031 million MB. Idea Cellular’s 3G data ARPU for 3G data subscribers decreased to Rs 202 from Rs 203, while 3G data usage increased to 802 MB from 778 MB.
3G revenues of Vodafone India grew 102 percent. 3G contributes to more than 62 percent to data revenue and volume.
Vodafone has made an investment of Rs 3,627 crore in H1. Capex to sales ratio is 16.5 percent. Capex of Vodafone India rose 3.4 percent. Bharti Airtel’s Capex was Rs 3,836 crore (–24 percent) in Q2 alone. Idea Cellular invested Rs 1,726 crore towards Capex in Q2.
Vodafone India has network of 132,446 2G and 3G sites. Vodafone has 39,774 3G sites. Idea Cellular has 39,867 3G sites. Idea Cellular has 1,19,276 2G sites. Bharti Airtel had 149,518 sites in Q2 fiscal 2016 against 141,290 sites in the corresponding quarter last year. Airtel had 62,447 3G sites against 38,055 at the end of the corresponding quarter last year and 52,886 at the end of the previous quarter.
Data revenue of Vodafone India rose 55.9 percent to Rs 3,979 crore in H1. 42.6 million data users use more than 1MB.
Data usage/sub (for users >1MB) of Vodafone India reached 618 MB/month and 3G usage/sub at 754 MB/month in Q2 ended September 30, 2015. Data volume from 3G and 2G networks of Idea Cellular 72,013 million MB in Q2 FY 2016 from 62,677 million MB in Q1 2016.
Vodafone India said data ARPU (for users > 1MB) increased to Rs 161 in Q2 FY 2016 from Rs 147 in Q2 FY 2015. On the other hand, Vodafone’s total ARPU fell 2.7 percent to Rs 197 in Q2. Idea Cellular says its total ARPU fell to Rs 175 in Q2 from Rs 182 in Q1. Bharti Airtel says ARPU fell to Rs 193 from Rs 198.
Vodafone says smartphone penetration increased 57 percent to 28.3 percent of total customer base.
Data revenues contribute to 18.9 percent and Vodafone Business Services contribute to around 15 percent of service revenues in Q2.
Vodafone India has 188.2 million subscribers — 174.9 million pre-paid and 13.3 million post-paid users. The number of rural customers is 99.3 million.
Service revenue of Vodafone India rose 6.2 percent to Rs 21,883 crore.
Vodafone has 1.7 million recharging outlets and 0.6 million activation outlets, 9,880 exclusive retail stores and 36 Angel stores in India.
3G is becoming the life line for Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
