INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Idea Cellular posted a lower-than-expected net loss in the fiscal fourth quarter, helped by lower costs and a higher other income, but the
continuing price war and cut in interconnect and international termination rates dragged the telco to its sixth straight quarter in the
but narrowed from Rs 1285.6 crore in previous quarter
The operator however fared better than what the markets had predicted, with an ET poll estimating a net loss of Rs 1449 crore
Revenue for the third-largest telco slumped 24.5% on year and 5.7%% sequentially to Rs 6,137.3 crore, Idea said in a statement Saturday
Idea, which ended the fiscal fourth quarter with 194.5 million users, added six million users on a net basis
new entrant Reliance Jio increased its sequential net profit by 1.2% to Rs510 crore.
"The super aggressive price plans including the deep
discounted unlimited voice bundled data plans, offered by most of the incumbent operators to retain existing subscribers against abysmally
low-priced plans offered by new 4G operator, exploded the voice and data volume growth multi-folds," the telco said
their usage to a single operator Subscribers increasing their broadband usage, with nearly 300-400 million Indians, primarily in the rural
hinterland, yet to adopt mobile telephony services
Idea is one of the telcos involved in consolidation, merging its operations with Vodafone India, which is in the final leg of regulatory
approvals and expected to be closed by June 30, though some expect it in May.
But while the just-ended quarter was weak, it was better than
In comparison, that of Bharti Airtel for the fourth quarter was Rs 116, its lowest ever, and Jio's was at Rs 137.1.
But the lower voice and
data rates helped push average voice usage to 577 minutes from 509 minutes, and average data consumption to over 818 million MB from 571
Comparitively, Jio recorded 716 minutes per user per month on average voice usage and 9.7 GB per user per month on data usage, while the
(Ebitda) margins expanded to 23.6% from 18.8% in the previous quarter, helped by lower costs
ago.
The overall capex spend for the year was for the Birla owned telco was Rs
7000 crore, majority of which was utilised for 4G expansion
The telco in its statement on Saturday mentioned that the recent equity raise of Rs
commensurate amount.
The operator also said that it expects to get Rs 4000 crore , from the sale of its standalone towers to American Tower
Corp (ATC) by the first half of this calendar year, once the necessary FDI approvals are in place
The merger of Indus Towers into Bharti Infratel , will also give Idea the option to either sell its 11.15% stake in Indus Towers for Rs
" Idea expects to benefit from faster than anticipated consolidation of industry and merged entity is expected to emerge as the largest
Indian mobile service providers for both voice and broadband services across 2G, 3G and 4G platforms, " said the operator
