Telenor’s global active Internet subscriber base stood at 40% of its connections for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 (Q1 2016); it recorded 208 million users globally. However, the company has not disclosed any specific number on Telenor’s active Internet base in India. Telenor reports a total subscriber base of 44 million in India for this quarter.
In the previous quarter (Q4 2015), Telenor’s Indian Internet subscriber base translated to 11.07 million.
Note that Telenor mentions that the active connection base in India’s operations are more conservative than the rest of the group due to the high churn in the market. Subscriptions in India are considered active if there was activity in the last 30 days, whereas for the rest of the group, active mobile internet users are subscriptions with at least 150 KB of data during the last three months.
Financials
Telenor India posted a total India revenue of 1.520 billion Norwegian Krone (NOK) for Q1 2016, a 9% increase from NOK 1.383 billion in the same quarter last year. On a sequential (QoQ) basis, revenues were marginally up by 5% from NOK 1.436 billion in last quarter.
However, Telenor posted a huge operating loss in India, which widened to NOK 3100 (~Rs 2,530 crore) million in this quarter, from NOK 159 million in the same quarter a year ago. In the previous quarter (Q4 2105), Telenor posted losses of NOK 368 million
Highlights
– ARPU: The total ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) was at Rs 90 for the quarter, up from Rs 88 in the preceding quarter.
– Net Additions: Telenor witnessed 1.5 million net additions for the quarter, as compared to 1.8 million net additions in the preceding quarter.
– Total connection base: Telenor reported a total connection base of 44 million across six telecom circles Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, UP East and UP West for the quarter. In the previous quarter there were 42.6 million subscribers
Other developments
– Today, the company hinted on suspending operations in India if the upcoming spectrum auctions turns out to be costlier, especially at time when it posted a huge loss in this quarter’s financial results.
– This month, Telenor confirmed to MediaNama that it is looking to launch 4G services across six circles it operates in. It has already rolled out a pilot 4G service in Varanasi and based on the outcome, it plans to extend 4G in 6-8 cities across six circles in the next few months.
– Earlier in Februaury,Telenor acquired 95% stake in marketing technology firm Tapad for $360 million on a debt and cash-free 100% basis. With this acquisition, Telenor will enter the advertising technology vertical and gain expertise in digital marketing and analytics.
Image Credit: Telenor website
