Kicking off the June quarter telecom results season, Vodafone India, the second-largest mobile operator in the country, on Friday said its service revenue increased by 13.8% to Rs 9,917.53 crore year on year, driven by strong growth in mobile voice minutes, higher average revenue per minute (Arpu) and a more stable competitive environment.
Service revenue refers to voice, data sales minus fixedline.
For the British parent, Vodafone plc, the overall revenues, however, fell 3.5% on weakness in Europe, though Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific regions too posted a 5.9% increase in sales.
Total sales, including joint ventures, grew 2.5 % to 10.155 billion pounds in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier, Vodafone said in a trading update, adding it remained on course to meet its full-year targets.
As per Vodafone India, subscribers increased by 2.7 million during the quarter.
Data usage rose by 29% compared with the fourth quarter figures on account of an increased number of data customers and usage per customer, particularly among 3G customers.
At the end of June, Vodafone’s reported active data customers totalled 41.2 million, including approximately 3.7 million 3G subscribers, up from 3.3 million in the March quarter.
Vodafone management attributed the customer additions to market consolidation with fewer players than the previous year, and stricter subscriber verification norms by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
Recently, Vodafone slashed 2G and 3G data tariffs, offering both at similar rates, in an effort to garner more data customers, since like its peers, the company expects data to overtake voice.
Idea Cellular, which reports Q1 results on August 1, is expected to lead, in terms of data average revenue per minute and voice revenue per minute growth, at 2.8% and 4.6%, sequentially, on tariff rise and, hence, better quality subscribers.
A telecom sector analyst requesting anonymity said, “Vodafone India’s June numbers seem to be good. Rupee revenue improvement and pricing improvement, possibly due to reduction in discounts, is a positive.”
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