Telecom Lead Asia: Idea Cellular’s revenue increased to Rs 5578 crore in third quarter of 2012-13 from Rs 5030 crore in Q3 2011-12.
The Aditya Birla group company’s net profit increased 14 percent to Rs 229 crore in the third quarter from Rs 201 crore.
Idea Cellular attributed the quarterly revenue growth to expansion of voice minutes at 5.2 percent to 132.2 billion minutes compared to 125.6 billion minutes in Q2 FY 2013, indicating consumer demand for voice telephony remains robust.
The company clocked 2.9 million VLR subscriber additions in Q3 FY 2013 against 0.6 million additions in Q2 FY 2013, despite implementation of stricter verification norms.
Capex of Idea Cellular was Rs 6.54 billion in Q3. Capex guidance for FY 2012-13 stands at Rs 30 billion, excluding spectrum payout.
Idea launched 2,961 new sites (2G+3G), expanded optical fiber network to 71,600 km and strengthened network capacities in NLD, ILD, ISP, data services and devices.
Idea Cellular rolled out 1,883 2G cell sites and 1,078 3G cell sites during the quarter, taking EoP site count to 87,662 and 15,545 for 2G and 3G respectively. 2G coverage has improved to 4633 towns from 4591 towns in Q3 2011-12.
Out of the existing 114 million subscriber base, the number of Idea customers adopting data services has grown to 21.75 million, now contributing 5.7 percent to service Revenue.
Data ARPU is Rs 52.
The data volume grew by 14.8 percent to 9,575 TB in Q3FY13 (8,339 TB in Q2FY13), while data revenue on sequential quarter basis grew by 10.8 percent.
The active 3G subscriber base for the company now stands at 4.1 million against 2 million in Q3 2011-12.
Idea Cellular’s ARPU declined to Rs 158 from Rs 159.
The company says the Average Realized Rate per Minute (ARPM) fell to 41.1p against 41.3p/minute in Q2FY13. The challenge on ARPM is on account of fall in the non-voice revenue contribution to 14.6 percent, driven down 1 percent over the last quarter, by TRAI’s new VAS regulation.
VAS contributes 14.6 percent to total service revenue from 13.7 percent in Q3 last fiscal.
Data revenue contributes 5.7 percent to service revenue.
Non-data VAS revenue is 8.9 percent of total service revenue.
