Vodafone Idea, which operates Vi brand, said its revenue rose 1 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 108.9 billion during the December quarter of fiscal 2020-21.
Vodafone Idea said improving subscriber mix with higher 4G additions and superior mobile network performance and launch of unified brand “Vi” helped in improving subscriber retention.
Vi GIGAnet remains the fastest 4G network in India, as per Ookla. Vodafone Idea has the best voice quality in the country for latest 3 months consecutively – November 2020, December 2020 and January 2021, as per telecom regulator TRAI .
Vodafone Idea has expanded network capacity supported by spectrum refarming and network upgrade to 4G.
Cost optimization is underway with target to achieve Rs 40 billion annualized Opex savings by December 2021 and it achieved ~50 percent of targeted Opex efficiency on run rate basis.
Vodafone Idea received board approval for raising up to Rs 250 billion through a mix of debt and equity. Vodafone Idea is currently in discussions with potential investors.
Vodafone Idea said its Capex spend in Q3FY21 was Rs 9.7 billion vs Rs 10.4 billion in Q2FY21. Vodafone Idea said it made investment in 4G business to increase coverage and capacity. It started to upgrade 3G network to 4G.
Vodafone Idea added ~12,000 4G FDD sites primarily through refarming of 2G/3G spectrum to expand 4G capacity. Vodafone Idea expanded LTE 900 presence in select locations, including through dynamic spectrum refarming, to improve customer experience.
Vodafone Idea deployed ~61,000 TDD sites in addition to the deployment of ~12,900 Massive MIMO sites and ~11,800 small cells.
Vodafone Idea’s broadband sites stood at 447,936 as of Q3FY21, lower compared to 457,386 in Q2FY21, as it started to refarm 3G sites to 4G. 4G network covers over 1 billion Indians as of December 31, 2020.
The subscriber base stands at 269.8 million in Q3FY21, a quarter-on-quarter decline of 2 million (vs 8.1 million decline in Q2FY21). The subscriber churn has reduced to 2.3 percent in Q3FY21 (vs 2.6 percent in Q2FY21).
ARPU of Vodafone Idea for Q3FY21 improved to Rs 121 compared to Rs 119 in Q2FY21. At the end of the quarter, the 4G subscriber base was 109.7 million vs 106.1 million in Q2, an increase of 3.6 million in the quarter.
Vodafone Idea’s data volumes grew 3.4 percent quarter-on-quarter, driven by higher 4G additions. Total minutes on the network declined by 1.5 percent during the December quarter compared to 4 percent dip in Q2FY21.
