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Buoyant of data growth, telecom service provider Vodafone India has posted an 11.2 per cent rise in service revenues of Rs 22,902 crore for the first half the year ended September 30.
The country’s second-largest telecom operator’s service revenues for the year-ago period stood at Rs 20,601 crore.
After regulatory impact, the service revenue rose 6.2 per cent to Rs 21,883 crore (Rs 20,601 crore) during the six month period, the company said in a statement.
“We continue to deliver healthy double digit underlying revenue growth of 11.2 per cent and further enhanced EBITDA margin to 29.7 per cent. Driven by the strong uptake in data, our 3G revenues grew 102 per cent YoY,” said Sunil Sood, Managing Director and CEO of Vodafone India.
The revenue performance was driven by customer additions, stable Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and robust growth in data revenues, it said.
The operator’s EBITDA (operating profit) rose to Rs 6,534 crore (Rs 6,121 crore) during the reporting period, posting an EBITDA margin at 29.7 per cent. This was led by higher data revenue and scale benefits.
The company’s strong operating free cash flow (OFCF) at Rs 2,922 crore (Rs 830 crore) in H1FY16.
4G plans
Vodafone India is gearing up to launch 4G services on 1800 MHz band in 5 circles (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kerala and Karnataka) beginning December 2015.
“We will launch our 4G services beginning December 2015 in five circles that are key to our data revenues and will continue to expand our own 3G coverage to 16 circles across the country. A robust and resilient network architecture with strong backhaul is being built to support the increasing volumes and need for speed from both retail and enterprise customers,” Sood added.
The company had a base of 188.2 million customers as of September 30, recording an 8.2 per cent year-on-year growth. It had a total of 132,446 sites, of which 39,774 are 3G sites, with the company’s service revenue ARPM being at 49.4 paise and voice ARPM at 33.4 paise.
rajesh.kurup@thehindu.co.in
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