Vodafone today its service revenue in India increased 12.6 percent, driven by customer base growth, 3G data uptake and stable voice pricing.

The telecom service provider said Q4 service revenue grew 12.1 percent. Vodafone added 17.2 million mobile customers during the year, taking the total to 183.8 million.

While voice business saw a decline in average minutes of use in H2 as competition increased in some circles, data usage grew 86 percent year-on-year, with the active data customer base increasing 23 percent to 64 million.

Vodafone India 3G customer base increased to over 19 million from 7 million a year ago, reflecting the significant investment in 3G networks. 3G browsing revenues grew 140 percent during the year.

During the year Vodafone added 12,585 new 3G sites, taking the total to over 35,000 and coverage of target urban areas to 90 percent.

In March 2015 Vodafone bid for spectrum in 12 telecom circles for INR 258.1 billion (£2.78 billion). It also bid for new 3G spectrum in seven circles, allowing us to address 88 percent of our revenue base with 3G services.

Vodafone has 89,000 M-Pesa mobile money agents. It had 3.1 million registered customers and 378,000 active users.
Vittorio Colao, group chief executive of Vodafone, said: “In India, our 3G footprint now reaches 90 percent of target areas, with 3G data revenue up 125 percent year-on-year in Q4.

In India, smartphone penetration in urban areas is already 44 percent, and 3G data usage per customer is at similar levels to Europe.

Baburajan K
[email protected]