Data Boom, User Addition Drive Vodafone Revenue Up 11 Pct

NEW DELHI: Telecom major Vodafone today said its service revenue — excluding the regulatory impact — in India has grown 11.2 pct to Rs 22,902 cr for the first half of the ongoing fiscal, driven by customer additions and robust growth in data.

The British telecom firm had posted service revenue of Rs 20,601 cr in April-September 2014, it said in a statement.

“We continue to deliver healthy double-digit underlying revenue growth… Driven by the strong uptake in data, our 3G revenues grew 102 pct year-on-year,” Vodafone India Managing Director and CEO Sunil Sood said.

He added that the company will launch its 4G services beginning December 2015 in five circles, which are key to its data revenues.

“India is a significant contributor to the Vodafone group. It’s the largest data traffic market by volume and third-largest contributor to group service revenues,” it said.

Including the regulatory impact, service revenues rose 6.2 per cent to Rs 21,883 crore in the said period as against Rs 20,601 crore last year.

Net debt for Vodafone India (standalone) for first half of 2015-16 is around Rs 76,800 crore, it said.

Vodafone India saw its mobile customer base grow 8.2 per cent to 188.2 million at the end of September 2015 as against 173.8 million in the year-ago period.

Data (browsing) revenue stood at Rs 3,979 crore in the first half of 2015-16, up 55.9 per cent y-o-y. Its 3G user base increased to 23.8 million in the period under review.

“3G revenues grew 102 per cent y-o-y, contributing over 62 per cent to data (browsing) revenue and volume,” it said.

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