Vodafone Idea on Tuesday reported a sequential improvement in its financial performance for the October–December quarter, aided by one-off gains from the write-back of provisions linked to settlement assets, alongside a steady rise in operating revenue.
The company posted a net loss of Rs 5,285 crore for the quarter, narrowing from a loss of Rs 5,524 crore in the preceding three months. The loss was also smaller than Bloomberg’s consensus estimate of Rs 6,109 crore.
The company disclosed that under an agreement with the UK promoter Vodafone Group Plc, it will receive Rs 2,307 crore over the course of the twelve months.
The company said it recorded an exceptional gain of Rs1,228 crore after reversing certain provisions, partly offset by a loss from revaluation of settlement-related assets.
Loss before exceptional items and tax was Rs 6,368 crore, widening 14.4% from the previous quarter’s Rs 5, 565 crore on account of ballooning in finance costs.
Steady Revenue Growth
Revenue from operations in Q3 stood at Rs 11,323 crore compared with Rs 11,194.7 crore in the previous quarter, marking a sequential improvement of 1.1%. It was slightly above the Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 11,297 crore. The uptick in operating revenue was supported by continued growth in data consumption on the network and the benefit from tariff adjustments implemented earlier.
The company has also continued to expand its 4G footprint, which it said now covers more than 85.5% of the population.
Capex for the quarter and for nine months ended December 31, 2025 stood at Rs 2,252 crore and Rs 6,448 crore respectively.
The operator reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of Rs 4,816 crore for the quarter, higher than Rs 4,685 crore in the preceding period, also ahead of Bloomberg estimates of Rs 4,797 crore. Ebitda improvement during the period reflected the strength in revenue alongside cost efficiencies.
Blended average revenue per user (Arpu) rose to Rs 172 from Rs 167 in the previous quarter. However, this remains lower than that of peers. Reliance Jio reported Arpu of Rs 213 in the period, rising from Rs 211.4 sequentially. Vodafone Idea’s mobile customer Arpu was Rs 186 in Q3, compared to Rs 180 in Q2.
Vodafone Idea’s subscriber base stood at 192.9 million at the end of the quarter, compared with 196.7 million in the preceding three-month period. While it continued to bleed customers, the company noted an increase in its 4G/5G subscriber base to 128.5 million from 127.8 million sequentially, indicative of ongoing customer migration toward higher-speed data services.
Strategic Inflection Point
Chief executive Abhijit Kishore said that the fiscal third quarter marked an important inflection point for the company with positive resolution of key legacy issues.
“We are thankful to the Government for offering a definitive, long-term and conclusive solution on the AGR matter,” he said.
“We also concluded the settlement of CLAM receivable of Rs. 6,394 Crore with the Vodafone Group. One of the key milestones for the quarter was the successful NCD raise of Rs. 3,300 Crore, despite an AGR overhang; a clear reflection of lender confidence on our ability to improve the business performance,” he added.
“Collectively, these developments have strengthened the trajectory of our debt discussions which will enable us to execute our larger capex plan to strengthen the network and further elevate the customer experience,” Kishore noted.
Total data consumption on the network increased to 7.56 billion GB from 7.28 billion GB in Q2 while per capital data consumption rose to 19.67 GB per month as compared to 18.95 GB per month in the September quarter.