Idea Cellular Q2 net profit up 7% to Rs 809.26 crore

Idea Cellular on Wednesday posted 7% increase in net profit to Rs 809.26 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2015-16.

The company had reported net profit of Rs 755.88 crore for the July-September period of last fiscal, 2014-15. Idea said in a regulatory filing that its total revenue rose to Rs 8,689.06 crore for the reported period, as compared to Rs 7,569.92 crore a year ago.

Idea said it was able to contain, on sequential basis, voice rate decline by 0.2 paisa per minute to 32.7 paisa per minute for second quarter but the blended mobile data average realisation per MB fell by 1.2 paisa to 23.4 paisa per MB in the reported quarter. The non-voice revenue contribution improved to 27.9% this quarter against 21.1% a year ago, it added.

The net mobile data customer base has risen to 41.3 million. The data average revenue per user (ARPU) of 3G customer stood at Rs 202. During the quarter under review, Idea spent Rs 1,726.6 crore on capital expenditure adding 9,947 sites.

It said industry revenue growth is trending low due to reduction in mobile incoming IUC charges settlement rate from 20 paisa to 14 paisa per minute from March 1, reduction in national call charges and SMS rate between 20-75% effective from May 1 and pressure on mobile data realised rate due to intense competition.