Vodafone Thought (Vi) posted a web lack of Rs 7,176 crore for Q2 of FY25, in comparison with a web lack of Rs 6,432 crore within the earlier quarter. The telecom firm continued to face stress from buyer losses, though the latest tariff revision in July contributed to some sequential income progress. Buyer ARPU (ex M2M), a key efficiency indicator, improved to Rs 166 within the quarter in comparison with Rs 154, reflecting a 7.8 p.c improve on a sequential foundation, pushed by tariff hike, Vi mentioned on Wednesday.
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Web Loss, Income Progress
The telco’s income from operations grew barely by 2 p.c year-on-year (YoY), reaching Rs 10,932 crore, and noticed a 4 p.c improve quarter-over-quarter. Its EBITDA for the quarter rose to Rs 4,550 crore, up from Rs 4,283 crore in the identical quarter final yr.
Vi’s complete subscriber base stood at 205 million, with 4G subscribers at 125.9 million, a slight lower from 126.7 million in Q1FY25. The general subscriber base, together with 4G, was impacted by latest tariff hikes. Nevertheless, within the postpaid phase, the corporate reported progress in its buyer base each on a QoQ and YoY foundation.
“Whereas a bigger a part of this improve is from M2M phase, we’ve seen constant improve in retail postpaid clients over final one yr, as we’re offering optimum vary of feature-rich choices to fulfill the various wants of postpaid clients,” Vi mentioned.
Authorities Fee Obligations
The telco mentioned its debt from banks and monetary establishments diminished by Rs 4,580 crore over the past yr (down from Rs 7,830 crore in Q2FY24) and stood at Rs 3,250 crore. The money and financial institution steadiness was Rs 13,620 crore as of September 30, 2024.
As of September 30, 2024, the federal government’s cost obligations stood at Rs 2,12,260 crore, together with deferred spectrum cost obligations of Rs 1,41,940 crore and AGR legal responsibility of Rs 70,320 crore.
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Akshaya Moondra, CEO of Vodafone Thought Restricted, mentioned, “Publish the profitable capital elevate, we kicked off our 4G growth drive on an accelerated trajectory. We expanded 4G information capability by 14 p.c and 4G inhabitants protection by 22 million, and consequently, our 4G speeds improved by 18 p.c.”
In the course of the quarter, Vodafone thought finalised long-term capex contracts value USD 3.6 billion with three world companions, Nokia, Ericsson, and Samsung, for the provision of community tools over the following three years.
Want for Additional Tariff Revisions
“On the debt elevate, we stay engaged with our lenders for tying up debt funding in direction of the execution of our community growth with deliberate capex of Rs 500 to 550 billion over subsequent 3 years. The influence of latest tariff interventions might be seen in improved ARPUs and income for the quarter, although the total influence might be mirrored over the following couple of quarters. Additional tariff rationalisation is required for the trade to totally cowl its value of capital,” Moondra mentioned.
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4G Growth and Community Enhancements
In the course of the quarter, the telco added round 42,000 4G websites, its largest-ever addition in 4G websites in 1 / 4. It additionally enhanced the community by deploying 4G on the sub GHz 900 band throughout round 20,500 websites, together with website growth on just lately acquired 900 MHz spectrum in some circles, providing superior indoor community expertise and elevated protection.
“We additionally added round 21,200 websites within the 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands primarily to extend the community capability leading to clients experiencing quicker information velocity on Vi GIGAnet community,” the telco mentioned.
The telco shut down round 19,700 3G websites, and its total broadband website depend stood at round 439,600 as of September 30, 2024. Because of the fast shutting down of 3G websites throughout circles, 3G websites are current in solely 8 circles as of September 30, 2024, the operator mentioned.
“We now have deployed round 74,750 TDD websites, round 13,950 Huge MIMO websites and round 13,250 small cells until date. Additional, we expanded our LTE 900 presence to 16 circles out of 17 precedence circles,” the telco mentioned.
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Vodafone Thought mentioned, its 4G growth is in progress, and the corporate is concentrating on to attain 4G inhabitants protection of 1.1 billion by March 2025 and 1.2 billion by September 2025. The rollout of 5G in key geographies will start by Q4FY25.
