Vodafone Idea Q3FY22 loss widens to Rs 7,230.9 cr YoY; APU increases 5.2 pc QoQ

The telecom major's revenue from operations for the quarter under review also dipped 10.80 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 9,717 crore compared to Rs 10,894 crore in the year.-ago period.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) grew 5.2 percent sequentially to Rs 115 against Rs 109 in the previous quarter, the company said.

Expansion of network capacity supported by spectrum refarming and network upgrade to 4G has continued, Vodafone Idea said.

It company said to have achieved 90 percent of targeted OPEX savings on a run-rate basis in Q3FY22 against Rs 4000 crore annualised OPEX (operating expenditure) savings target.

The run rate refers to the financial performance of a company based on using current financial information as a predictor of future performance.

The company reported a 3.3 percent revenue growth sequentially due to several tariff revisions including tariff hikes effective November 25.

“We are pleased to announce the second consecutive quarter of revenue growth driven by several tariff interventions taken in the last few months. While the overall subscriber base has declined as a result of the tariff interventions, the 4G subscriber base remained resilient,” said Ravinder Takkar, MD and CEO, Vodafone Idea.

The company remains focused on executing our strategy to improve our competitive position and win in the marketplace, he said, adding “We have opted for upfront conversion of interest arising from deferment of the spectrum and AGR dues into equity”.

The firm's total gross debt minus lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due till December 31, 2021, stood at Rs 1,98,980.

The gross debt, however, comprises deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 1,11300 crores and AGR liability of Rs 64,620 crore to be paid to the government, and loans from banks and financial institutions of Rs 23,060 crore.

Net debt stood at Rs 1,97,480 crore while cash and cash equivalents were Rs 1,500 crore.

The company also lost its customer base due to a tariff hike which caused a decline to 24.72 crore from 25 crore in Q2.

The 4G subscriber base has expanded further with 8 lakh new customers added in Q3 taking the customer base to 11.7 crore.

Subscriber churn (the rate at which customers stop doing business with an entity) increased to 3.4 percent in Q3FY22 against 2.9 percent in Q2FY22.

Data usage per 4G subscriber was at 14 GB/month compared to 12 GB/month a year ago.