Vodafone India, the country’s second-largest telecom operator’s service revenue dropped 0.5% to Rs 42,956 crore in the fiscal year 2017. It said that it maintained service revenues despite aggressive launch by Reliance Jio in September last year.
The telco’s overall revenue declined 0.6% to Rs 43,095 crore in the fiscal year. The telco’s net debt for the fiscal year is Rs 602 billion. Vodafone India’s data browsing revenue went up 5% to reach Rs 8,467 crores.
Vodafone’s EBITDA declined 10.2% to Rs 11,784 crore from Rs 13,115 crore in the last fiscal year. The telco’s subscriber base increased 5.6% year-on-year at 209.1 million. Its overall data user base declined 1% at 66.9 million in the fiscal, while 3G and 4G user base surged 35.9% at 37.7 million, the company said in a statement.
“Amidst an unprecedented and intensely competitive environment, we delivered a stable performance while recording a strong gain of 0.7ppt in RMS YTD Dec 16; increasing our customer base past the 200 million subscriber mark; and expanding our Vodafone SuperNet 4G presence to 2,400 towns by utilizing the spectrum bought during the year,” Sunil Sood, Managing Director and CEO, Vodafone India said in a statement.
The company said that it sustained and prioritised capital investments of Rs 8,311 crores in FY17, driven by significant investments in new broadband site roll-out to deliver superior customer experience and growth in key focus areas.
“We continue to delight and reward customers with innovative and meaningful value propositions including SuperHour, exciting 4G offers, richer content under Vodafone Play and added benefits for Vodafone RED customers,” he said, adding that the company remains committed to playing its r role in enabling Digital India by fulfilling the evolving needs of increasing volumes, speed and innovative solutions for both retail and enterprise customers.
The telco has 141,000 total sites with 106,300 being 3G and 4G sites. It said to have a substantial rural presence with a customer base of 114 million as of March 2017. Vodafone had revenue market share (RMS) of 22.7% at the end of third quarter 2017, up 0.7 percentage points from the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2016.
The telco’s service revenue ARPU stood at Rs 158 in the fourth quarter FY17. It said that Vodafone Business Services now contributing to over 17% of service revenues ( FY17).
