Vodafone Idea on Thursday said its net loss shrank sequentially in the June quarter to Rs 6,608 crore on rising revenues and falling finance costs. The numbers were better than ananlysts’ estimates of a loss of Rs 6,853 crore. The loss for Q4FY25 was Rs 7,166 crore.
Revenue for the quarter came in at Rs 11,023 crore, a 0.1% sequential growth, missing Bloomberg estimates of Rs 11,153 crore.
ARPU and data metrics continue upward trend
The customer base of the cash-strapped telco further shrank to 197.7 million from 198.2 million in the March 2025 quarter, though blended churn was flat sequentially at 4.1%. Average revenue per user (not including enterprise customers) continued to rise sequentially at Rs 177, 1.1% higher than the preceding quarter’s Arpu of Rs 175.
Leadership change and network expansion
Meanwhile, the company on Thursday informed the exchanges that Abhijit Kishore, currently the chief operating officer (COO) at Vodafone Idea, will take on the responsibility of chief executive officer (CEO) from August 19 as current CEO Akshaya Moondra’s three-year term comes to an end. Kishore has been associated with the company since March 2015 and has held multiple senior leadership roles within the organisation including chief enterprise business officer, in addition to heading business for Gujarat and Kerala circles.
After multiple quarters of bleeding data customers (those on services across 2G to 5G), the telco saw growth at 134.8 million data subscribers (Q4FY25: 134.1 million).
Calling it a decisive turnaround quarter, Akshaya Moondra, chief executive, Vodafone Idea, said the investments made over the past three quarters to expand our 4G coverage have started yielding results, as reflected in the 90% lower subscriber loss compared to Q2 and Q3 of last financial year, being the lowest subscriber decline since merger.”
Vodafone Idea’s postpaid customer base grew to 26.6 million quarter-on-quarter as against 25.6 million in the March quarter.
Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) came in 1% lower q-o-q at Rs 4,612 crore compared to Rs 4,660 crore in Q4FY25, and behind Bloomberg estimates of Rs 4,655 crore.
“We are encouraged by the momentum across our core business metrics. With a solid foundation in place, we are well positioned to seize emerging growth opportunities in the industry. We continue to invest in capex and to support our broader capex plans of Rs. 500–550 billion. We remain engaged with lenders to secure debt financing,” Moondra added.
The telco’s 4G/5G subscriber base continued to grow sequentially at 127.4 million in the June quarter, as compared to 126.4 million in the March quarter. The firm is yet to declare its 5G subscriber base.
The introduction of 5G services has lifted the firm’s data consumption metrics as overall consumption grew 9.4% sequentially to 6.7 billion GB and per capita data usage grew to 17.74 GB compared to 16.2 GB in Q4FY25.
Total minutes of use came in at 350 billion (Q3: 357 billion) and average minutes of use per customer showed decline to 590 from 598 minutes in the previous quarter.
“Our 5G services are now operational in 22 cities across 13 circles, and we are committed to systematically expanding our 5G footprint, in line with growing 5G handset adoption,” Moondra said.
Capex spend for Q1FY26 was Rs 2,440 crore as compared to Rs 4,230 in Q4FY25.
Vodafone Idea’s debt from banks and financial institutions increased to Rs 1,930 crore sequentially from Rs 1,710 crore at the end of the March quarter. The cash and bank balance as on June 30 was Rs 6,830 crore versus Rs 99,300 crore at the end of March.
The payment obligations to the government stood at Rs 1.99 lakh crore as of June 30, which includes deferred payment obligation towards spectrum payable over the years till FY 2044 and AGR (including interest accrued but not due) payable over the years till FY2031.
The AGR instalment on which moratorium was taken under the 2021 telecom reforms package amounting to Rs 16,428 crore is payable in FY26, as is a payment of Rs 2,641 crore towards deferred spectrum dues, the company said.