Vodafone Idea has revealed the company’s revenue, Opex, ARPU, Capex and profit for the second quarter of fiscal 2018-19.
Vodafone Idea, which completed the merger between Vodafone and Idea Cellular, lost 13 million phone customers.
Vodafone Idea’s mobile ARPU fell 4.7 percent quarter on quarter to Rs 88 for the quarter. This is despite the company offering 3G and 4G data services.
Data volumes expanded to 2,260 Petabytes during the quarter as the usage per data customer increased to 5.6 GB per month vs 5.0 GB in Q1FY19.
Vodafone Idea added 4.4 million broadband customer taking the base to 99.7 million. Vodafone Idea does not reveal the specific number of 4G subscribers in India.
The broadband subscriber penetration stands at 23.6 percent. Voice volume remained flat due to low seasonal demand during the quarter.
Vodafone Idea added 24,866 3G and 4G sites during the second quarter, taking the overall broadband site count to 365,575. 4G sites are VoLTE enabled. Vodafone Idea deployed TDD spectrum (2300 / 2500 MHz) in 16 out of 20 services areas.
Vodafone Idea’s broadband coverage is available in 261,000 towns and villages, covering ~ 817 million Indians or 67.6 percent of the population. The Capex spend for the quarter was Rs 33 billion and the focus was on 4G expansion.
The incremental Capex coupled with redeployment of co-located broadband sites will allow the company to expand its broadband coverage and create large capacities in a short span of time.
Balesh Sharma, CEO of Vodafone Idea, said: “We remain focused on accelerating integration momentum for higher synergy realization; expanding coverage and capacity of our 4G network; providing the best of customer experience.”
Vodafone Idea’s revenue declined 7.1 percent to Rs 120.2 billion as compared to Q1 FY 2019.
EBITDA of Vodafone Idea declined 28.7 percent to Rs 9.8 billion, mainly due to continued revenue pressure.
Vodafone Idea said it started talks with companies to sell the company’s fibre network with over 156,000 Km of intra- and inter-city fibre routes.
Meanwhile, Vodafone CEO Nick Read said the company may replicate elements of its British mobile towers joint venture in other markets but not necessarily to the extent of sharing radio equipment in major cities, Reuters reported.
Nick Read said on Tuesday that Vodafone could increase the utilization of its assets such as 58,000 mobile phone masts it has in Europe, by encouraging rival operators to use them or selling a stake to a mobile tower operator.
Baburajan K
