The contribution of Mobile Value Added Services (including P2P SMS and mobile data) or Non Voice Revenue to Idea Cellular‘s service revenues has increased quarter-on-quarter to 15.6% of total service revenue, for the three month period ending September 30, 2012 (Q2-FY13). This is slightly higher than the 14.5% of service revenue reported last quarter.
The company’s gross revenue stood at Rs 5348.1 crore, down 3.4% from Rs 5538.2 crore in the last quarter. Idea blamed uncertain regulatory interventions, weak seasonal demand and continued grim battle for market supremacy, for this slide. Mobile ARPU for the company registered a decrease to Rs 148, from Rs 156 that it had reported at the end of the last quarter.
Idea claims to have 15% revenue market share in India.
Operational Highlights:
– Average minutes of use: 359, a decrease compared to 379 last quarter.
– Average Realization per minute (ARPM): increased to Rs 0.0413 from Rs 0.0412 the last quarter, and down from Rs 0.422 the quarter before.
– MNP: claims a net gain of 4 million customers (as on October 6, 2012) from other existing operators.
– Minutes of Use: The total number of minutes on network decreased 4% to 125.6 billion from 131 billion.
– Connection base: decreased to 115.5 million. As of August, 2012, Idea claims to have 94.1% of reported subscribers as VLR subscribers (active), which is the highest in the industry. In addition, it says that it added 18.95 million net VLR subscribers during the year (Sep 2011-Aug 2012).
– Prepaid subscribers: 96.2% of total subscriber base.
– Cell sites: 14,467 3G cell sites, up from 13,363. 85,779 2G cell sites, up quarter on quarter from 83,860.
– Churn: 10.1% blended churn, with prepaid churn at 10.4% and postpaid churn at 3.0%
Idea claims that its 3G services are available in 20 service areas (excluding Orissa and Punjab) in India through a combination of home network and roaming arrangements. The company is trying to transition its subscribers to high speed data. It launched the 4th Idea branded 3G handset AURUS, during the quarter.
Financials
Idea Cellular reported a consolidated profit of Rs 240 crore for the quarter, up from Rs 234.14 crore in the previous quarter. The total revenue declined to Rs 5314 crore from Rs 5503.69 crore in the previous quarter.
On a standalone basis, profit after tax for the quarter stood at Rs 351.9 crore, up from Rs 198.1 crore last quarter. It reported revenues of Rs 5348.1 crore, down from Rs 5538.2 crore in the last quarter.
On an year-on-year basis, absolute EBITDA has increased to Rs 1261 crore (Q2FY13), a 20.9% increase from Rs crore (Q2FY12). The company says its standalone EBITDA margin increased by 0.3% on a QoQ basis to 23.6%.
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