The continuing plunge of average realisation from its subscribers has hit India's fifth largest telecom operator Idea Cellular hard, even as it has attained the status of a pan-India operator. It rolled out in J&K, West Bengal, Kolkata, Assam and North Eastern states during the quarter, adding 4889 cell sites during the quarter taking the total to 55,804; Spice and Idea combined now have 62,950 cell sites. Idea added 5.5 million connections in the December 2009 quarter, it now has 52.3 million subscribers while Spice has 5.3 million. The flurry of pay per second tariff launches that happened in the second half of 2009 which Sanjeev Aga, MD, Idea Cellular had in the previous quarter dismissed as being 'topical' have adversely affected the company's average realisation per minute which dove to 51 paise from the 64 paise recorded in December 2008. Average revenue per user in December 2008 was at Rs. 268 - it has now dropped to an all time low of Rs. 200. KPIs Average minutes of use per user (MoU) has spiked in the December 2009 quarter, against the trend so far - from Rs. 399 in the July quarter, it had fallen to Rs. 375 but is now up to Rs. 389. Total minutes of use has also increased by 14.9% quarter on quarter to 57,841 minutes, which still did not manage to buck up realisations with tariffs reaching rock bottom. Details: Quarterly Report | Financials | Release Financials The contribution of VAS to revenues has…
