Vodafone India’s revenue growth – driven by 3G focus – in fiscal 2015 was remarkable.
Considering the fact that Vodafone India does not have a strong 4G LTE focus in India though it has limited spectrum to launch high-end data services, its strong focus on data was significant. The focus on 3G Capex will also assist Vodafone to take on Reliance Jio Infocomm as and when it launches it LTE 4G services in the next couple of months.
TelecomLead.com is analyzing some of the data points shared by Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood in Delhi last week.
The telecom service provider has posted 9.5 percent increase its rural mobile subscribers to 97.9 million in fiscal 2015 from 89.4 million in fiscal 2014.
During the period, total mobile subscribers of Vodafone India rose 10.4 percent to 183.8 million.
The growth of Vodafone India’s rural mobile subscribers is remarkable in the last five years with the number growing at 8.7 percent to 89.4 million in fiscal 2014, 30.9 percent to 82.2 million in fiscal 2013, 21.7 percent to 62.8 million in fiscal 2012 and 40.2 percent to 51.6 million in fiscal 2011.
The total mobile subscribers of Vodafone India during the period was 9.3 percent to 166.6 million in fiscal 2014, 1.3 percent to 152.4 million in fiscal 2013, 11.8 percent to 150.5 million in fiscal 2012 and 33.4 percent to 134.6 million in fiscal 2011.
Vodafone India has 171.5 (156 million) million pre-paid customers and 12.3 million (10.6 million) post-paid mobile users in fiscal 2015.
The mobile service provider has 1.8 million recharging outlets and 0.83 million activation outlets, 9,895 Vodafone exclusive retail stores and 34 Angel stores in 21 telecom circles.
To manage the 10.4 percent growth in mobile subscriber base to 183.8 million in fiscal 2015, Vodafone India has increased its investment (Capex) by 37.4 percent to Rs 8,598 crore.
Sunil Sood, managing director and CEO, Vodafone India, recently said: “During the year, we made significant Capex investments to expand our network and reach while recording revenue growth of 12.6 percent and enhanced EBITDA margin to 29.6 percent.”
Vodafone India’s Capex increase has resulted into 175.9 percent increase in 3G subscriber base to 19.4 million, 140 percent increase in 3G revenues contributing to over 53 percent to data revenue and volume, and 65.5 percent growth in total data revenue to Rs 5,690 crore in fiscal 2015. The telecom operator has 130,131 sites and out of this, 35,012 are 3G sites. Service revenue of Vodafone rose 12.6 percent to Rs 42,352 crore.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com