Vodafone India’s average revenue per user (ARPU) plunged in the third quarter to reach Rs 174.9, against Rs 178 in the second quarter. Vodafone, the country’s second largest telco, added 7,600 3G sites in the third quarter to take the overall 3G site count to 47,000 sites with 3G coverage reached 94% in targeted urban areas. The telco’s 2G cell site count stood at 134,000 in India in the third quarter.
Bharti Airtel on the other hand, had 77000 3G sites, and 151000 2G sites till December 2015. During the quarter, Vodafone India’s total data revenue went up 38%, while 3G browsing revenue surged 69%, supported by an increasing proportion of 3G users, now totalling 25.9 million. Its 3G data usage/user also grew 23% in the quarter.
The telco added 5.4 million customers in the quarter to take the overall base to 193.6 million. It had added just 2.8 million customers in the second quarter. Vodafone India’s messaging volumes, representing SMS and MMS message volumes including outgoing, incoming, wholesale and roaming, reached 26,108 million in the third quarter, up from 24,710 million in the second quarter.
The telcos’ total voice minutes, or the volume of minutes handled by each local network (includes incoming, outgoing and visitor calls) reached 181,203 million in the quarter, up from 177,053 million in the second quarter.
The telco’s average customer churn stood at 51.2% in the third quarter, as compared to 53% in the second quarter. Churn is total gross customer disconnections in the period divided by the average total customers in the period.
