Vodafone India's service revenue rises 11.2 per cent

Driven by customer additions and robust growth in data revenues, Vodafone India has posted an 11.2-per cent rise in service revenues at Rs22,902 crore for the first half the year ended 30 September.

The company's revenue was also boosted by stable average revenue per user (ARPU).

The country's second largest telecom operator by revenues and subscribers, Vodafone India had posted Rs20,601 crore in service revenues during the year-ago period.

During the period under review, the service provider also posted a 6.2-per cent rise in service revenue at Rs21,883 crore (after regulatory impact). On a comparative basis, Vodafone India had posted Rs20,601 crore during the same period a year ago.

''We continue to deliver healthy double-digit underlying revenue growth of 11.2 per cent and further enhanced EBITDA margin to 29.7 per cent. Driven by the strong uptake in data, our 3G revenues grew 102 per cent year-on-year,'' said Sunil Sood, managing director and CEO of Vodafone India.

Vodafone India, a subsidiary of UK's Vodafone Group, had posted a rise in EBITDA (operating profit) to Rs6,534 crore (Rs6,121 crore in previous year) during the reporting period. Led by higher data revenue and scale benefits, the company's EBITDA margin rose 29.7 per cent.

Vodafone India is readying to launch 4G on 1800 MHz band across 5 circles of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kerala and Karnataka from December 2015.

''We will launch our 4G services beginning December 2015 in five circles that are key to our data revenues and will continue to expand our own 3G coverage to 16 circles across the country,'' Sood added.

Vodafone India had a total subscriber base of 188.2 million customers as of September 30, an 8.2 per cent rise from that a year ago. As of September end, it had a total of 132,446 sites, of which 39,774 are 3G sites, with the company's service revenue average revenue per minutes (ARPM) being at 49.4 paise and voice ARPM at 33.4 paise.

It had made sustained capital investments of Rs 3,627 crore during the first half of the year, denoting 16.5 per cent of the revenues, driven by significant investments in new site roll-out to deliver superior customer experience and growth in key focus areas.