Vodafone India revenue up just 2.3 per cent to Rs 10,897 crore in Q3

NEW DELHI: Country’s second largest wireless operator by subscribers, Vodafone India revenue rose only 0.5 percent (reported) and 2.3 percent (organic) to £1,103 million or about Rs 10,897 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2015.

Similarly, the company had reported an 18 per cent rise in its revenue, with £1.1 billion (about Rs 9,364 crore), a year ago.

“Service revenue increased 2.3% (Q2: 5.6%), with the quarterly growth rate slowing due to further competitive pressure, impacting both voice and data prices and data customer growth. Excluding the impact of regulatory changes, including MTR cuts, roaming price caps and an increase in service tax, service revenue grew by 7.6% (Q2: 10.9%),” said British Telecom Giant Vodafone Group in its global statement.

On the other hand, Vodafone Group's revenue increased 0.5 percent (reported) and 2.3 percent (organic) to £10.283 billion.

“We continued to grow our total customer base, driven by a particularly strong performance in voice, adding 5.4 million customers (Q2: 2.8 million) in the quarter. While total voice traffic continues to grow, this was more than offset by a further decline in voice revenue per minute, which fell 9.8% year-on-year as a result of ongoing price competition,” it said.

Data growth remained strong, with data usage increasing 64%, supported by an increasing proportion of 3G users, now totalling 25.9 million in India.

However, the rate of revenue growth slowed in the quarter driven by increased price competition.

This resulted in lower unitary prices, down 16% year-on-year, driven by increased bundle adoption which led to a reduction in data revenue growth.

“Progress on Project Spring remains strong having already achieved our original site build out plans. We added 7,600 3G sites in the quarter, taking our population coverage in targeted urban areas to 94%,” the company said.

The company said that we have also launched 4G services in two key circles and remain on track to expand this to five circles by the end of this financial year, covering around 45% of current data revenue. Our M-Pesa service continues to expand, with 962,000 active customers and 102,000 agents.

“We have taken another step forward in the last three months, with the highlights being a strong performance in South Africa and improving tr ends in Germany and Italy. W ith 7 million new customers in the quarter, we have m intained our good com mercial mom entum in mobile and are beginning to accelerate in fixed, as we launch converged services in more markets," said Vittorio Colao, Group Chief Exeutive.

"Customers are increasingly recognising the quality of our networks, leading to strong growth in data usage and benefiting fr om the significant investm ents in 4G an d fibre that we have made o ver the last t wo years. We continue to face regulatory and com petitive challenges in many markets, but e are confident that the business is well positioned for the growth opportunities ahead," he said.