Vodafone Idea Reports Rs 4,874 Crore Loss In June Quarter

NDTV Profit Team

26 Jul 2019, 05:39 PM IST

Vodafone Idea said its ARPU or average revenue per user stood at Rs 108

Vodafone Idea, the country's largest wireless telecom service provider by subscriber base, reported a net loss of Rs 4,873.9 crore in quarter ended June 30. The telecom major had posted a net profit of Rs 256.5 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. In a regulatory filing after market hours, Vodafone Idea said its revenue from operations jumped 91 per cent to Rs 11,269.9 crore from Rs 5,889.2 crore in the year-ago period, according to the exchange notification posted by Vodafone Idea after market hours on Friday.

Its earnings were affected due to higher network expenses and IT outsourcing costs. Vodafone Idea's network expenses and IT outsourcing costs rose 13.46 per cent to Rs 2,998.6 crore in the three-month period.

The company said its subscriber base declined to 320.0 million in the first quarter of the current financial year, from 334.1 million in the previous quarter. The telecom operator said the subscriber base fell primarily "due to customer churn following the introduction of ‘service validity vouchers' in the prior quarters".

The private sector telecom major said its ARPU or average revenue per user stood at Rs 108, 3.85 per cent higher compared to Rs 104 in the previous quarter.

The company said its high ARPU subscriber base remained broadly stable.

"We have taken certain market initiatives to offer a better value proposition to low ARPU customers and to reduce low-end churn. We have also introduced bigger data bundles at Rs. 229/255 offering Unlimited Voice and 2/2.5 GB data per day, to upgrade heavy data users from Rs.169/199 plans, which should improve ARPU over time," the company said in a press release.

The sequential trend in both metrics reflects the low-end customer disconnections that occurred during the March and June quarters following the introduction of service validity vouchers, it added.

The Vodafone Idea share price ended 4.84 per cent lower at Rs 9.25 on the BSE ahead of the earnings announcement by the company, underperforming the benchmark Sensex index which ended 0.14 per cent higher to break a six-day fall.