Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) has released its financial results for the quarter ended (QE) on September 30, 2024. According to the company, its net loss increased to Rs 71.75 billion from Rs 64.32 billion in the second quarter (Q2) of financial year 2023-24 (FY24). The company attributed this to a significant increase in interest and finance cost, and a dip across most key performance indicators. This was despite a four per cent sequential rise in revenue from operations to Rs 109.32 billion from Rs 105.08 billion for the same period.

Meanwhile, customer base of the company decreased to 205 million in Q2 FY25 from 210.1 million in Q1 FY25, hit mainly by the industry-wide tariff hikes. The company’s post-paid customer base rose to 24.5 million as compared to 24.1 million in Q1 FY25, mainly driven by machine-to-machine (M2M) connections used for enterprise applications.

Further, average revenue per user (not including enterprise customers) came in 7.8 per cent higher at Rs 166 against Rs 154 in Q1 FY25 on the back of the tariff hikes.

Furthermore, the 4G data capacity increased by 14 per cent and 4G population coverage by 22 million reaching 1.05 billion in Q2 FY25. As per the company, 4G expansion is in progress and it targets 4G population coverage of 1.1 billion by March 2025 and 1.2 billion by September 2025. The rollout of 5G in key geographies will start in Q4 FY25. Meanwhile, the telco continues to be engaged with lenders for tying up debt funding towards the execution of its network expansion with a planned capex of Rs 500- 550 billion over the next three years.

Moreover, capital expenditure (CapEx) spend for Q2 FY25 marked at Rs 13.60 billion vis-à-vis Rs 7.60 billion in Q1 FY25.

The telco’s debt from banks and financial institutions decreased by Rs 14 billion and year-on-year to Rs 32.50 billion from Rs 78.30 billion in Q2 FY24. The cash and bank balance stood at Rs 136.2 billion, compared to Rs 181.5 billion in Q1 FY25.

The payment obligations to the government stood at Rs 212 billion, which includes deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 142 billion and AGR liability of Rs 703.2 billion. Meanwhile, earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were11.56 per cent higher at Rs 45.49 billion from Rs 42.04 billion in Q1 FY25.

While the telco increased its 4G coverage during the quarter, its key performance indicators (KPIs) on data saw a sequential dip. Its 4G subscriber base decreased to 125.9 million in Q2 FY25 from 126.7 million in Q1 FY25, as did total data customers (including all customers from 2G to 5G services) declined to 134.9 million from 136.9 million in Q1 FY25.

As a result, total data consumption also reduced during the September quarter to 5,992 million MB from 6,111 million MB the previous quarter. Per capita data consumption was 15.76 GB, also down from 15.96 GB in Q1 FY25. Total minutes of use came in at 365 billion from 385 billion in Q1 FY25 and average minutes of use per customer decreased to 587 minutes from 607 minutes in Q1 FY25.