Indian telecom operator Idea Cellular has revealed the main achievements in the third quarter ended in December 2017.

The wireless subscriber base of Idea Cellular reached 188.5 million in December from 182.4 million in September 2017.

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Idea Cellular said the Capex spend for the current quarter was INR 17.5 billion. The company rolled out nearly 10,000 broadband sites. The company has revised Capex guidance for the year to INR 70 billion from INR 60 billion earlier.

Idea and Vodafone India, in addition to Active Infrastructure sharing arrangements, have also expanded their ICR with higher coverage under 2G ICR arrangements and introduced 4G ICR arrangements, to avoid duplication of spends and make best use of Capex. This has resulted in expanded coverage across over 12,500 new towns and neighbouring villages, where one of the operators was not previously present.

Idea is investing in optical fibre cable (OFC) transmission network to tap the future potential of wireless broadband and currently has laid and energised over 153,200 kms OFC, in comparison to 105,600 kms in Q3FY16, an addition of nearly 48,000 kms of fibre.

Idea Cellular said the fibre backhaul network of the company serves its data needs along with supporting Idea’s NLD/ ILD/ ISP/Fixed and WiFi Broadband capabilities.

Idea Cellular said the number of cell sites has grown to 131,366 from 131,239.
The company said broadband cell sites for offering 3G and 4G services have increased to 143,565 from 133,685.

Idea Cellular has cut down 2G coverage to 7,682 Census Towns from 7,686 Census Towns.
2G coverage was reduced to 3,87,411 villages from 3,87,456 villages.

Idea Cellular’s broadband coverage reached 6,483 towns from 5,996 towns. Broadband coverage reached 1,47,536 villages from 1,15,440 villages.

Idea Cellular’s optical fibre cable (OFC) reached 1,53,200 KM in the third quarter against 1,50,500 KM in the second quarter.

Total minutes of use on its telecom network in India increased to 282,574 million from 255,035.

Idea Cellular achieved 30.2 percent growth in data volume to 571,301 million MB against 438,688 million MB on its 2G, 3G and 4G networks. The company did not reveal data related details on its 3G and 4G networks.

During the last one year, Idea’s wireless broadband data aggregate volume has multiplied by ~6.5 times to 549 billion MB in Q3FY18 against 84 billion MB a year ago.

Idea Cellular posted gross revenue of INR 65,097 million against INR 74,654 million.
Idea Cellular has reduced operation cost (Opex) to INR 52,864 million from INR 59,638 million.

Idea Cellular has posted 18.5 percent drop in EBITDA to INR 12,233 million against INR 15,016 million with EBITDA margin of 18.8 percent against 20.1 percent.

The 12.8 percent decline in Idea Cellular gross revenue was due to a TRAI regulation that reduced mobile termination charge (MTC) from 14 paisa to 6 paisa per minute.

The 57 percent decline in IUC settlement rates impacted Idea’s revenue by INR 8,200 million and EBITDA by INR 2,300 million.

The new domestic MTC rate and international mobile termination charges from 53 paisa to 30 paisa per minute will also impact all operators.

EBIT of Idea Cellular was INR –9,181 million against INR –6,127 million. Idea Cellular also recorded loss of INR 12,845 million against INR 11,065 million.

Idea Cellular achieved blended ARPU of INR 114 against INR 132, indicating the strong competition in the Indian telephony market.

Voice ARPU of Idea fell to INR 86 from INR 101, showing its reliance on voice business for growth.

Average minutes of use per user or MoU was 509 minutes against 459 minutes. Average realisation per minute (ARPM) was 22.5 paisa against 28.7 paisa.

Idea Cellular said VAS contributed 25.3 percent of service revenue as compared with 23.3 percent in Q2.

Data contributed 18 percent of service revenue as compared with 16.5 percent in the previous quarter.

Idea Cellular said its data subscribers on 2G, 3G and 4G networks increased to 42.607 million from 38.195 million.

Data volume on 2G, 3G and 4G networks reached 5,71,301 million MB from 4,38,688 million MB.

Idea Cellular’s data ARPU for 2G, 3G and 4G data subscribers dipped to INR 95 from INR 105.

Mobile data realization rate fell to world’s lowest tariffs at 2.0 paisa per MB, a sharp decline of 27 percent vs 2.7 paisa per MB in Q2FY18.

Data usage per subscriber increased to 4,742 MB from 3,805 MB.

Baburajan K