Indian telecom operator Idea Cellular has revealed its capital expenditure (Capex) during the third quarter of fiscal 2017.

Idea Cellular said its Capex spend was Rs 2,000 crore excluding forex and interest capitalization during Q3

Idea Cellular has a network of 232,977 sites including 132,362 2G sites, 66,661 3G sites and 33,954 4G sites in India. Idea Cellular’s 133,800 Kms of fibre offers its GSM services to over 1 billion Indians across 4,00,000 towns and villages.

Idea Cellular’s mobile broadband services are available to around 500 million Indians across nearly 100,000 towns and villages in 17 service areas.

Idea Cellular has added 9,009 4G sites during the quarter, reaching 33,954 4G sites, covering 37.6 percent of population or 211 million Indians spread across nearly 19,000 towns and villages in 11 service areas.

Idea Cellular expanded its 3G network by 6,194 sites reaching overall 3G sites count to 66,661. Idea’s own 3G services cover 57.2 percent of Indian population or 395 million spread across 89,000 towns and villages in 13 service areas.

Idea Cellular has rolled out 16,932 sites — 1,729 2G cell sites, 6,194 3G sites and 9,009 4G cell sites.

Despite pressure from Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular has maintained its Capex plan at Rs 7,500 – Rs 8,000 crore including the launch of 3G and 4G services on the spectrum won in the October 2016 spectrum auction.

Idea Cellular revenue

Idea Cellular posted a loss of Rs 478.9 crore during the third quarter of the current fiscal.

Idea Cellular’s revenue fell 3.7 percent to Rs 8,662.7 crore. The EBITDA of Idea Cellular fell 6.4 percent to Rs 2,165.5 crore. EBITDA margin fell to 25 percent from 30.5 percent in Q2 fiscal 2017.
Idea Cellular has witnessed a decline of 5.5 million mobile data customers on sequential quarter basis with overall mobile data subscriber (2G+3G+4G) base receding to 48.6 million against 54.1 million in Q2 FY 2017.

Idea reduced its voice rates by 10.6 percent to 29.6 paisa per minute against 33.1 paisa in Q2FY17 and drop its mobile data rates (ARMB) by 15.2 percent to 15.9 paisa per megabyte against 18.7 paisa in Q2FY17.

EBITDA fell to Rs 21,655 million, a drop of 23.8 percent. The Q3FY17 EBITDA margin @ 25 percent is lower by 5.5 percent against EBITDA margin of 30.5 percent in Q2FY17.

Idea Cellular data

Idea mobile data volume grew 1.3 percent to 108.8 billion megabyte, though the per subscriber data usage grew marginally to 703 megabyte against 694 megabyte in Q2FY17.

The data ARPU per data subscriber (2G+3G+4G) fell to Rs 111 against Rs 130.

In 2015 and 2016), Idea expanded its telecom infrastructure by 69 percent adding 95,302 network sites (2G+3G+4G), including nearly quadrupling its Wireless Broadband sites (3G+4G) from 27,744 in Q3 FY 2015 to 1,00,615 in Q3 FY 2017.

The company has increased its fibre network by nearly 50 percent from 90,200 km in Q3 FY 2015 to 133,800 km in Q3 FY 2017.

Baburajan K
[email protected]