Idea Cellular said its Capex spend for the first quarter of 2018-19 has reached Rs 980 crore mainly targeting for 4G expansion.

The company said its investment in network during the first quarter of the fiscal year was slow due to its proposed merger with Vodafone India.

Idea Cellular has added 5,688 broadband sites — 3G and 4G networks – as part of the strategy to enhance wireless broadband infrastructure during the quarter.

Idea Cellular said the number of broadband sites increased from 117,386 in June, 2017 to 160,598 sites in June, 2018. The total number of network sites reached 291,555 sites on GSM, 3G and 4G. The wireless broadband coverage reached 662 million Indians spread across 171,000 towns and villages in 22 service areas.

Idea Cellular has started deploying 2300 MHz TDD spectrum in circles such as Maharashtra, Kerala & MP and 2500 MHz TDD spectrum in Andhra Pradesh to augment its wireless data capacity.

The company expanded its fibre network to 158,100 km in June 2018 from 120,700 km in June 2016.

Idea Cellular revenue

Idea Cellular said its revenue fell 2.9 percent quarter on quarter to Rs 5889.2 crore – due to drop in ARPU, with an EBITDA of Rs 659.5 crore.

The ARPU of Idea Cellular fell to Rs 100 in Q1 2018-19 from Rs 105 in Q4 2017-18. Idea Cellular had a VLR subscribers of 203.4 million. The drop in ARPU was due to competition from Reliance Jio, Vodafone and Airtel.

The voice minutes surged at 39.4 percent to o 349.5 billion from 250.7 billion minutes in Q1 2017-18. The monthly voice consumption per user has risen to 609 minutes from 441 minutes per month in Q1 2017-18.

Broadband data usage per broadband data subscriber has increased to 8GB from 3GB per month a year back.

Broadband data volume rose 4x to 992 billion MB.

Idea Cellular has nearly 41 million wireless broadband subscribers with the addition of 14.6 million in the latest quarter.