Idea Cellular reveals Capex in first quarter

Idea Cellular Capex in Q1
Idea Cellular has revealed its Capex (capital expenditure) in the June quarter of 2016.

The Aditya Birla group company has made an investment of Rs 1,080 crore in the first quarter of fiscal 2017.

Idea Cellular has made investment in 7,469 sites — 1,002 2G cell sites, 1,171 3G sites and 5,296 4G cell sites during the quarter.

The total number of cell sites at Idea Cellular is 199,005.

Idea Cellular has 127,835 2G sites, 51,231 3G sites and 19,939 4G sites. Idea Cellular is the only Indian telecom operator to reveal the number of 4G sites.

The Capex guidance for FY 2017 stands at Rs 65 – 70 billion with current spectrum portfolio. Idea Cellular is expected to acquire spectrum during the forthcoming spectrum auction.

Idea Cellular said its telecom network now spreads to nearly 2,00,000 sites — 127,835 2G sites, 51,231 3G sites and 19,939 4G sites — and 120,700 kms of fiber and covers nearly 1 billion Indians for GSM services over 3,94,000 towns and villages.

Idea Cellular’s wireless broadband services reach to 400 million Indians across 17 circles covering over 63,000 towns and villages.

Idea Cellular revenue

Idea Cellular said its Q1 revenue rose to Rs 9,486 crore from Rs 8,791 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal.

Since January 2016, Idea clamped down on promotional offers for its new and existing customers resulting in voice realised rate improvement by 3.1 percent from 33.3 paisa in Q4 FY 2016 to 34.3 paisa in Q1 FY 2017.

Voice minute of use declined 1.1 percent from 201.6 billion in Q4 FY 2016 to 199.3 billion in Q1 FY 2017.

Idea Cellular has added 5 million data users to reach data subscriber base of 49 million.

Mobile data volume grew 13.2 percent to 93.1 billion MB in Q1 FY 2017. Data realized rate (ARMB) fell 8.1 percent from 22.9 paisa to 21.1 paisa per MB in Q1 FY 017. Mobile data revenue of Idea Cellular grew 4.1 percent.

Idea Cellular said its 4G network covers over 150 million Indian population spread across nearly 2,000 towns and 5,000 villages of 10 service areas.

The company offers 3G services to 350 million Indians across 4,000 towns and 57,000 villages in 13 service areas.

Idea Cellular has 1.8 million 4G customers. Reliance Jio Infocomm recently said it has 1.5 million 4G customers on trial network. Bharti Airtel is yet to announce its 4G subscriber base though it claims that it has the largest mobile Internet network in India.

Idea mobile broadband services (3G + 4G) adoption is steadily improving as 61.4 million or 34.8 percent of Idea’s 176.2 million subscribers have upgraded to latest 3G or 4G smartphone (14.2 million 4G phone).

20 million of Idea Cellular customers have 3G / 4G device.  27 million Idea customer base or 44 percent of smartphone owners are using the company’s 3G or 4G data services with 10.3 million addition in last one year.

Mobile broadband data volume – on 3G + 4G network — has grown by 85.5 percent from 36 billion MB in Q1 FY 2016 to 66.9 billion MB in Q1 FY 2017.

The overall mobile data users – on 2G, 3G and 4G — penetration is at 27.8 percent of EoP subscribers reaching 49 million data subscribers with blended mobile data ARPU of Rs 142 in Q1 FY 2017 from Rs 147 in Q1 FY 2016 and data usage per subscriber at 674 MB against 599 MB in Q1 FY 2016.

The mobile data revenue contribution is 20.6 percent of service revenue, while overall non voice revenue (including data) contribution has increased to 28.2 percent against 26.1 percent in Q1 FY 2016.

Baburajan K

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