Vodafone India's service revenues rise 10.3 per cent

Riding on subscriber addition, strong data usage and improved voice pricing, Vodafone India posted a 10.3-per cent rise in service revenues to Rs 10,323 crore during the quarter ended 30 June 2014, up from Rs9,375 crore in the comparable period a year ago.

The company's mobile customers rose by 3.3 million during the quarter, increasing its total customer base to 169.9 million as of June 30. Vodafone India is an unlisted company in India.

Vodafone India's data usage grew 102 per cent during the quarter, primarily driven by mobile internet customer growth and a 46 per cent increase in usage per customer, it said in a statement.

''The year has started in line with our expectations.... We also see very strong growth for demand for data in India,'' Vodafone Chief Executive Officer Vittorio Colao said.

The company, a subsidiary of British telecom major Vodafone Group, had an active data customers base of 57 million. This included 10 million 3G customers and 29 million smartphone users representing 17 per cent penetration of the customer base.

The company's mobile wallet M-Pesa had about 1.5 million registered customers at June 30, of which about 300,000 were active.

However, Vodafone Group posted a drop in its main revenue measure due to weakness in South Africa and Spain, while a broader improvement is not expected until later in the year.

Vodafone Group posted its eighth consecutive quarter of service-revenue declines, with service revenue falling 4.2 per cent in the first quarter ending in June (See: Vodafone looks to India as Q2 service revenue falls 4.2% to $15.75 billion).

The world's second-biggest mobile operator is ramping up capex on new, faster 4G networks to satisfy customers' growing appetite for data.

Vodafone Group launched project spring, a three-year £19-billion investment programme into network in Europe and other such as India and South Africa. The company has been rolling out 4G services across Europe.