Vodafone Idea today released its Q3 FY21 performance report during which the telco’s overall subscriber base reduced to 269.8 million. On the brighter side, Vi lost just two million subscribers in the quarter compared to the previous quarter. We have seen Vi losing over eight million subscribers almost every quarter since the merger announcement between Vodafone and Idea Cellular. The Average Revenue per User (ARPU) of Vi increased to Rs 121 from Rs 119 in Q2 FY21. Out of the 269.8 million subscriber base, a total of 256.6 million subscribers are active on Vi’s network. During the quarter, Vi says it has added around 12,000 4G FDD sites primarily through refarming of 2G/3G spectrum. For the unaware, Vi has started refarming of 3G spectrum for 4G in multiple cities.
Vodafone Idea Key Performance Indicators During Q3 FY21
Vi stated that the revenues are up by 1% QoQ to Rs 108.9 billion, supported by improving subscriber mix with higher 4G additions. Recently, Ookla stated that Vi GIGAnet remains the fastest 4G network in India, whereas Trai said the telco delivered best voice quality in the country during the months of November 2020, December 2020 and November 2021. Vi seems to be improving on the customer service front, as a result, the telco also narrowed the subscriber loss. In the quarter, Vi lost just two million subscribers compared to the previous quarter. In Q2 FY21, Vi had 271.8 million subscribers under its belt, and at the end of December 2020, the company’ user base dipped to 269.8 million. Out of this, 92.3% are prepaid subscribers. The ARPU on Vi network increased to Rs 121 in Q3 FY21. Vi users consumed a 4,489 billion MBs of data during the quarter. The 4G subscriber base of Vodafone Idea also saw an increase to 109.7 million from 106.1 million the previous quarter. And the average data used by a broadband subscriber (3G+4G) stood at 12,288MB. Vi also confirmed that it secured Broad approval for fundraising of up to Rs 250 billion through a mix of debt and equity. As we reported recently, it is currently in active discussions with potential investors for the fundraise. Overall, Vi had a very decent quarter and seems to be getting back on track slowly. It will be interesting to see how the telco performs in the last quarter of FY 21. The telco is expected to hike tariff prices by the end of this quarter to improve financial performance.
