Vi's loss shrinks to Rs 6,432 crore in Q1FY25; subs churn continues
Vodafone Idea’s net loss narrowed sequentially to Rs 6434.4 crore in the fiscal first quarter,from Rs 7675 crore, on the back of lower finance and depreciation & amortisation costs, even though it continued to be dragged by heavy customer losses and high debt.
Operationally, the joint venture between UK’s Vodafone and India’s Aditya Birla Group, continued to battle with operational challenges. The telco’s average revenue per user (ARPU) — a key performance metric — remained flat sequentially at Rs 146, even though the full impact of the recent headline rate hikes will flow in only from the fiscal second quarter. But there was a marginal rise in 4G user base that boosted data usage sequentially.
“Post the recent equity raise, we are in the process of expanding our 4G coverage and capacity as well as launch of 5G services,” Vi chief executive Akshaya Moondra said in an official statement Monday. “Some capex has already been ordered and under execution, basis which we expect around 15% increase in our data capacity and an increase in 4G population coverage by around 16 million by end Sep’24.”
Vi’s quarterly revenue declined 0.93% sequentially to Rs 10,508 crore, hit by continued customer losses, underlining its continuing inability to compete with bigger rivals, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, who have both launched 5G services nationally.
Loss-making Vi ended the June quarter with 210.1 million subscribers compared with 212.6 million in the January-March period. But, its 4G subscribers base grew marginally from
