Vodafone Idea net loss has widened sequentially in the September quarter by Rs 743.8 crore to Rs 7,175.9 crore, due to a significant increase in interest and finance cost, and a dip across most key performance indicators. Losses stood at Rs 6,432.1 crore a year ago. This was despite a 4% sequential rise in revenue from operations to Rs 10,932.2 crore, from Rs 10,508.3 crore.
Customer base of the cash-strapped telco shrunk to 205 million in the September quarter from 210.1 million in the June quarter, hit mainly by the industry-wide tariff hikes. Its postpaid customer base rose to 24.5 million versus 24.1 million in Q1, mainly driven by machine-to-machine (M2M) connections used for enterprise appplications.
Average revenue per user (not including enterprise customers) came in 7.8% higher at Rs 166 from Rs 154 in Q1 on the back of the tariff hikes. “The impact of recent tariff interventions can be seen in improved Arpu and revenue for Q2, though the full impact will be reflected over the next couple of quarters. Further tariff rationalisation is needed for the industry to fully cover its cost of capital,” Akshaya Moondra, CEO, Vodafone Idea, said.
In the September quarter, the 4G data capacity increased by 14% and 4G population coverage by 22 million reaching 1.05 billion. The company said that 4G expansion is in progress and it targets 4G population coverage of 1.1 billion by March 2025 and 1.2 billion by September 2025. The rollout of 5G in key geographies will start in Q4FY25.
“In parallel, we worked on closure of long-term capex contracts and recently awarded capex deals worth $3.6 billion to three global partners Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung for the supply of network equipment over next 3 years,” Moondra added.
He also said the telco continues to be engaged with lenders for tying up debt funding towards the execution of its network expansion with a planned capex of Rs 50,000-55,000 crore over next three years.
Capex spend for Q2FY25 was Rs 1,360 crore against Rs 760 crore in Q1FY25. The expected capex for second half of the fiscal is Rs 8,000 crore, Vi said in its earnings release.
Vodafone Idea’s debt from banks and financial institutions shrank sequentially by Rs 1,400 crore and year-on-year by Rs 4,580 crore to Rs 3,250 crore (from Rs 7,830 crore a year ago). The cash and bank balance as on September 30 was Rs 13,620 crore, compared to Rs 18,150 crore in Q1.
The payment obligations to the government stood at Rs 2.12 lakh crore as of September 30, which includes deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 1.42 lakh crore and AGR liability of Rs 70,320 crore.
Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) was 11.56% higher at Rs 4,549.8 crore from Rs 4,204.7 crore in Q1.
While the telco increased its 4G coverage during the quarter, its KPIs on data saw a sequential dip. Its 4G subscriber base shrank to 125.9 million in Q2FY25 (from 126.7 million in Q1) as did total data customers (including all customers from 2G to 5G services) declined to 134.9 million (from 136.9 million in Q1).
As a result, total data consumption also reduced during the September quarter to 5,992 million MB from 6,111 million MB the previous quarter. Per capita data consumption was 15.76 GB, also down from 15.96 GB in the June quarter.
Total minutes of use came in at 365 billion (from 385 billion in Q1) and average minutes of use per customer shrunk to 587 minutes from 607 minutes in the previous quarter.