Telecom network operator Idea Cellular’s performance in the Indian 3G market was impressive in the second quarter ended September 2015.
Idea Cellular has added 9.1 million new 3G data customers in Q2. It currently serves 19.6 million 3G data customers. Over the last one year, the 3G data subscriber base for the company has grown by 86 percent.
The data ARPU of a 3G data customer is Rs 202 in Q2 FY2016. Mobile data traffic rose 1.83 times from 39.4 billion MB in Q2 FY 2015 to 72 billion MB in Q2 FY 2016.
The Adity Birla group company added 6,246 3G sites and 3,701 2G sites in the second quarter ended September 30, 2015. At present, Idea Cellular has 39,867 3G sites and 119,276 2G sites. Idea Cellular has expanded own 3G coverage in 12 circles. It will launch 3G in Kolkata metro service area shortly.
Idea Cellular achieved 82.6 percent mobile data – on 2G and3G networks — volume growth to 72 billion MB.
Blended mobile data average realisation per MB (ARMB) fell 1.2p/MB to 23.4p/MB in Q2 FY2016 from 24.6p/MB in Q1 FY2016.
The telecom network operator added 4.2 million mobile data customers — on 2G and 3G networks — to 41.3 million. 24.8 percent of overall Idea subscribers are using Idea 2G or 3G platform to access Internet.
While Idea Cellular added 23 million new subscribers in last one year, only 10.4 million existing users upgraded to Idea mobile data service usage.
The higher mobile data usage per data customer @615 MB against 447 MB in Q2 FY2015 helped improve the blended mobile data ARPU to Rs 144 in Q2 FY2016 from Rs 119 in Q2 FY 2015.
Idea provides 3G services in 21 service areas of India (except Orissa), including through Intra-Circle Roaming (ICR) arrangements with other operators.
Idea Cellular is consistently investing in optical fiber cable transmission network to tap the future potential of wireless broadband and currently has laid over 100,400 km OFC, in comparison to over 77,000 km two years back (Q2FY14). Idea now has over 5,750 OFC PoPs (3G & 2G) in all circles.
The 3G coverage of Idea Cellular is 3,584 towns and 42,091 villages.
Baburajan K
[email protected]
