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Tag: Sunil Sood

  • Vodafone to get new shine from Idea; merger on its last leg

    Vodafone to get new shine from Idea; merger on its last leg

    MUMBAI: The team at Vodafone India is gung-ho about its merger with the Aditya Birla-owned Idea Cellular.

    Consolidation between the networks is in its last leg with most of the approvals already through. “We are just awaiting approvals from National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and it should happen over the next few months,” says Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood.

    What the senior executive is quite keen on is building a new fighting-fit telco machine with the right imagery. Says Vodafone India COO Balesh Sharma: “We are very optimistic about the merger. We want to give Vodafone a new shine with this merger. All options are open in terms of branding. However, haven’t decided what our brand journey after the merger will be.”

    While that may be true, with the two major behemoths coming together, they will have to deal with the strong messaging that each of these has been pushing out to customers. Vodafone is known for its ZooZoos while Idea rolled out its new tagline of ‘LookLook’ early this year. Vodafone will continue to push the characters of Asha and Bala for all its campaigns post the merger as well.

    While Vodafone has a strong presence in urban areas, Idea has captured a significant chunk of interior India. Together they will surpass Bharti Airtel to become the largest telecommunication company with a combined subscriber base of over 400 million.

    Idea Cellular, our own homegrown brand that was launched in 1995, has a subscriber base of 193.96 million as of July 2017 whereas Vodafone India is the Indian subsidiary of UK-based Vodafone Group, the world’s second-largest mobile phone company. The network enjoys a subscriber base of 250 million and has a 20 per cent market share.

    Under the terms of the deal, Vodafone will hold 45.1 per cent stake in the combined entity, the Aditya Birla Group will hold 26 per cent and the remaining shares will be held by the public. With this deal, Vodafone India would have a valuation of Rs 82,800 Crore and Idea at Rs 72,200 Crore.

    In the ongoing battle for customer acquisitions, Vodafone and Airtel have revamped their tariffs to lure customers. With IoT being the new talk of the town, networks are fighting to seize Reliance Communication customers.

    With the current telecom war between the giants – Vodafone, Airtel and Jio – it will be interesting to watch which one bites the bullet and which bites the dust.

  • Vodafone India modernises for IoT-ready future

    Vodafone India modernises for IoT-ready future

    MUMBAI: Internet of Things (IoT), the technology that connects any digital device to your phone, is one of the hottest buzzwords in the technology industry this year. Telecom operator Vodafone India has marked itself as the first brand to undergo this evolution in India by asking consumers to be future ready.

    Vodafone has repositioned itself as a modern, contemporary, inspiring and future-fit brand with its new tagline, “The future is exciting, Ready?’’. It is a significant metamorphosis for one of India’s most iconic and loved brands from its earlier ‘Power to you’ tagline, which was introduced in 2009. This new positioning, part of Vodafone’s global rebranding exercise across 36 countries, is designed to underline Vodafone’s belief in new technologies and digital services playing a positive role in transforming society.

    Although the repositioning is a part of its global campaign, Vodafone wants Indian consumers to understand technology by showcasing Indian characters and Indian scenarios in its campaigns. The new visual identity will place greater emphasis on Vodafone’s iconic ‘speech mark’ logo that will now appear as the central graphical focus overlaid on all marketing and marketing communications collateral in a new 2D design in place of a skeuomorphic 3D approach.

    Vodafone India managing director and chief executive officer Sunil Sood said that the telco has marked a 180 per cent growth in SIM cards used for IoT devices in India. Although the numbers are small, the market is still emerging and with government’s smart cities initiative, a lot of IoT solutions would be used, making it an exciting time to reposition itself. Globally, 60 million SIM cards have been sold for IoT solutions.

    “India is entering a new exciting era of digital, convergence, big data, IoT, cloud, augmented realities, robotics and AI. The real and virtual worlds are converging at an unprecedented pace to create a bold new future. Our new brand positioning emphasises Vodafone’s mission and purpose to help customers and communities adapt, navigate and prosper from the remarkable new trends reshaping the world,” he adds.

    The company recently tied up with various smartphone makers like Intex, Micromax, Lava and Nokia to encourage current non-users of 4G to upgrade and use internet. Vodafone India chief operating officer Balesh Sharma mentioned that the company has a well distributed network in India and now wants to make feature phones more affordable in rural India.

    The telecom corporation will invest only selectively in print media but its digital spends will increase. “Our media spends will evolve over the next few years and we will invest heavily in digital and social media as that is where the opportunity lies,” he adds.

    It remains to be seen whether Vodafone can replicate its success of earlier campaigns, such as its evergreen Zoozoos, into the unknown territory of IoT.

  • Jio impacts Vodafone India H1-17 results

    Jio impacts Vodafone India H1-17 results

    BENGALURU: Vodafone Group Plc (Vodafone group) reported Group organic service revenue up 2.3 per cent for the half year ended 30 September 2016 (H1-17).  H1-17 Group revenue declined 3.9 per cent to €27,054 million as compared to € 28,151 million for H1-6 (corresponding period of the previous year). H1-17 Vodafone Group reported organic EBITDA growth of 4.3 per cent to €7,906 million, supported by strong cost control. In real terms, EBIDTA declined 1.7 per cent from $8,039 million reported for H1-16.

    India numbers

    Vodafone India contributed about 11.1 per cent to Vodafone Group revenues and adds about 43.7 per cent to Vodafone group mobile subscriber base in the quarter ended 30 September 2016 or Q2-17. About 51.4 per cent of the group’s voice usage was from India in Q2-17 at 183,555 million minutes (Total group 357,034 million minutes).

    Vodafone India Service revenue grew by 5.9 per cent (quarter ended 30 June 2016 or Q1-17: 6.4 per cent, Q2-17: 5.4 per cent) in H1-17 to Rs 22,579 crore from Rs 21,321 crore in H1-16. Excluding regulatory drags including MTR cuts, roaming price caps and an increase in service tax, the quarterly rate of growth slowed from 7.7 per cent in Q1-17 to 6.3 per cent in Q2-17. This underlying slowdown was mainly driven by lower data revenue growth resulting from increased competitive pressure says the company.

    Data revenue growth slowed from 22 per cent in Q1-17 to 16 per cent in Q2-17. This was driven by a flattening of unique data user growth quarter-on-quarter, reflecting the impact of ‘free’ promotional offers from a new entrant, viz., Reliance Jio. 

    Vodafone group’s active data customer base at the period end was 69.6 million or 6.96 crore (Q1-17- 69.7 million or 6.97 crore). Overall data pricing declined 14 per cent year-on-year, while data usage per customer continued to grow strongly to 504MB (+28 per cent). Vodafone group 3G / 4G customer base continued to grow to 36 million (3.6 crore), up 51 per cent, and smartphone penetration was now 34.5 per cent says the company. Vodafone India reported revenue from data of Rs 4,617 crore. Data ARPU (for users more than 1MB) was at Rs 164 in Q2-17 versus Rs 158 in Q2-16.

    Voice revenue growth increased to 2.7 per cent in Q2-17 (Q1-17: 2.2 per cent) supported by a growing customer base. This was despite seasonally lower average minutes of use per customer. Total mobile customers increased 2.8 million (28 lakh) over the period, giving a closing customer base of over 200 million for the first time (Q2: 200.7 million or 20.07 crore).
    During the period Vodafone India added 4,100 new 3G sites, taking the total to 63,000. It also has 13,000 4G sites. In the Indian spectrum auction during October Vodafone India increased its total spectrum holding by 62 per cent. 

    Overall Vodafone paid Rs 20,300 crore (€2.7 billion), of which 92 per cent was on spectrum for the 12 circles in which it claims to be a market leader. Vodafone India plans to extend its 4G footprint from 9 to 17 circles by the end of the current financial year. These circles cover around 91 per cent of Vodafone India’s service revenues and 94 per cent of its data revenues.

    EBITDA grew by 2.6 per cent in H1-17 to Rs 6,704 crore from Rs 6,534 crore, with the EBITDA margin declining by 0.1 percentage points to 29.6 per cent due to higher network and customer acquisition costs, which were largely offset by significant operating cost savings says the company.

    The Vodafone Group intends to proceed with an IPO of Vodafone India as soon as market conditions allow. It does not expect this to take place during the current financial year.

    Company speak

    Vodafone group chief executive Vittorio Colao said, ‘We have further improved our performance during the first half of the financial year with Europe modestly ahead of our expectations – led by Germany and Italy – and good execution in AMAP. Our substantial network investments and ‘more-for-more’ propositions have allowed us to capture opportunities from strong data demand, supporting European mobile contract ARPU and continued growth in emerging markets. As Europe’s fastest-growing broadband operator, we are driving rapid uptake of our consumer fixed and TV services while our wholly converged Enterprise business continues to outperform its peers. We are now translating faster revenue growth into margin expansion, supported by our focus on cost efficiency.

    Competition in India has increased in the year, reducing revenue growth and profitability. We have responded to this changing competitive environment by strengthening our data and voice commercial offers and by focusing our participation in the recent spectrum auction on acquiring frequencies in the more successful and profitable areas of the country.

    Overall, we expect to sustain our underlying performance in the second half of the year and remain on track to meet our full-year objectives despite macroeconomic uncertainties. This performance allows for improved returns to our shareholders, as reflected by the growth in the interim dividend.

    Vodafone India managing director and CEO Sunil Sood commented: “Amidst a dynamic environment, we delivered a solid performance. We are well prepared for the increased level of competitive intensity that we are experiencing. We have strengthened our customer value propositions making Vodafone Play, your one window to the world of entertainment, launched exciting 4G offers – 9GB free on purchase of 1GB pack for new 4G handsets and revamped Vodafone RED for high end voice and data users. Further, we pioneered lifestyle propositions such as Vodafone U for young customers and Vodafone Flex, which allows customers to make a single recharge for voice, sms and data. We expanded our 4G footprint to 9 circles by launching services in 4 new circles. With the spectrum bought recently, we will roll out the Vodafone SuperNet 4G experience rapidly to 2,400 towns and in 8 additional circles by March. We continue to invest to expand our modern and scalable network with a strong backhaul, to support the increasing volumes and need for speed from both retail and enterprise customers. We remain committed to fulfill the evolving needs of our customers and leverage our global experience plus rich understanding of India to play a meaningful role in enabling Digital India.”

  • Jio impacts Vodafone India H1-17 results

    Jio impacts Vodafone India H1-17 results

    BENGALURU: Vodafone Group Plc (Vodafone group) reported Group organic service revenue up 2.3 per cent for the half year ended 30 September 2016 (H1-17).  H1-17 Group revenue declined 3.9 per cent to €27,054 million as compared to € 28,151 million for H1-6 (corresponding period of the previous year). H1-17 Vodafone Group reported organic EBITDA growth of 4.3 per cent to €7,906 million, supported by strong cost control. In real terms, EBIDTA declined 1.7 per cent from $8,039 million reported for H1-16.

    India numbers

    Vodafone India contributed about 11.1 per cent to Vodafone Group revenues and adds about 43.7 per cent to Vodafone group mobile subscriber base in the quarter ended 30 September 2016 or Q2-17. About 51.4 per cent of the group’s voice usage was from India in Q2-17 at 183,555 million minutes (Total group 357,034 million minutes).

    Vodafone India Service revenue grew by 5.9 per cent (quarter ended 30 June 2016 or Q1-17: 6.4 per cent, Q2-17: 5.4 per cent) in H1-17 to Rs 22,579 crore from Rs 21,321 crore in H1-16. Excluding regulatory drags including MTR cuts, roaming price caps and an increase in service tax, the quarterly rate of growth slowed from 7.7 per cent in Q1-17 to 6.3 per cent in Q2-17. This underlying slowdown was mainly driven by lower data revenue growth resulting from increased competitive pressure says the company.

    Data revenue growth slowed from 22 per cent in Q1-17 to 16 per cent in Q2-17. This was driven by a flattening of unique data user growth quarter-on-quarter, reflecting the impact of ‘free’ promotional offers from a new entrant, viz., Reliance Jio. 

    Vodafone group’s active data customer base at the period end was 69.6 million or 6.96 crore (Q1-17- 69.7 million or 6.97 crore). Overall data pricing declined 14 per cent year-on-year, while data usage per customer continued to grow strongly to 504MB (+28 per cent). Vodafone group 3G / 4G customer base continued to grow to 36 million (3.6 crore), up 51 per cent, and smartphone penetration was now 34.5 per cent says the company. Vodafone India reported revenue from data of Rs 4,617 crore. Data ARPU (for users more than 1MB) was at Rs 164 in Q2-17 versus Rs 158 in Q2-16.

    Voice revenue growth increased to 2.7 per cent in Q2-17 (Q1-17: 2.2 per cent) supported by a growing customer base. This was despite seasonally lower average minutes of use per customer. Total mobile customers increased 2.8 million (28 lakh) over the period, giving a closing customer base of over 200 million for the first time (Q2: 200.7 million or 20.07 crore).
    During the period Vodafone India added 4,100 new 3G sites, taking the total to 63,000. It also has 13,000 4G sites. In the Indian spectrum auction during October Vodafone India increased its total spectrum holding by 62 per cent. 

    Overall Vodafone paid Rs 20,300 crore (€2.7 billion), of which 92 per cent was on spectrum for the 12 circles in which it claims to be a market leader. Vodafone India plans to extend its 4G footprint from 9 to 17 circles by the end of the current financial year. These circles cover around 91 per cent of Vodafone India’s service revenues and 94 per cent of its data revenues.

    EBITDA grew by 2.6 per cent in H1-17 to Rs 6,704 crore from Rs 6,534 crore, with the EBITDA margin declining by 0.1 percentage points to 29.6 per cent due to higher network and customer acquisition costs, which were largely offset by significant operating cost savings says the company.

    The Vodafone Group intends to proceed with an IPO of Vodafone India as soon as market conditions allow. It does not expect this to take place during the current financial year.

    Company speak

    Vodafone group chief executive Vittorio Colao said, ‘We have further improved our performance during the first half of the financial year with Europe modestly ahead of our expectations – led by Germany and Italy – and good execution in AMAP. Our substantial network investments and ‘more-for-more’ propositions have allowed us to capture opportunities from strong data demand, supporting European mobile contract ARPU and continued growth in emerging markets. As Europe’s fastest-growing broadband operator, we are driving rapid uptake of our consumer fixed and TV services while our wholly converged Enterprise business continues to outperform its peers. We are now translating faster revenue growth into margin expansion, supported by our focus on cost efficiency.

    Competition in India has increased in the year, reducing revenue growth and profitability. We have responded to this changing competitive environment by strengthening our data and voice commercial offers and by focusing our participation in the recent spectrum auction on acquiring frequencies in the more successful and profitable areas of the country.

    Overall, we expect to sustain our underlying performance in the second half of the year and remain on track to meet our full-year objectives despite macroeconomic uncertainties. This performance allows for improved returns to our shareholders, as reflected by the growth in the interim dividend.

    Vodafone India managing director and CEO Sunil Sood commented: “Amidst a dynamic environment, we delivered a solid performance. We are well prepared for the increased level of competitive intensity that we are experiencing. We have strengthened our customer value propositions making Vodafone Play, your one window to the world of entertainment, launched exciting 4G offers – 9GB free on purchase of 1GB pack for new 4G handsets and revamped Vodafone RED for high end voice and data users. Further, we pioneered lifestyle propositions such as Vodafone U for young customers and Vodafone Flex, which allows customers to make a single recharge for voice, sms and data. We expanded our 4G footprint to 9 circles by launching services in 4 new circles. With the spectrum bought recently, we will roll out the Vodafone SuperNet 4G experience rapidly to 2,400 towns and in 8 additional circles by March. We continue to invest to expand our modern and scalable network with a strong backhaul, to support the increasing volumes and need for speed from both retail and enterprise customers. We remain committed to fulfill the evolving needs of our customers and leverage our global experience plus rich understanding of India to play a meaningful role in enabling Digital India.”

  • Digital India: Vodafone receives largest-ever FDI

    Digital India: Vodafone receives largest-ever FDI

    MUMBAI: Vodafone India has made the largest-ever equity infusion of Rs 47,700 crore in the country.

    One of India’s leading telecom service-providers today announced that it had become the service provider of choice to over 200 million customers in India. As India’s second-largest telecom service provider with 22.5% revenue market share, over half of the customers (107 million) come from rural India endorsing Vodafone as the preferred brand in urban India as well as the hinterland.

    Vodafone further announced that it had received the equity infusion from Vodafone Group in the first half of the current fiscal. This infusion via foreign direct investment (FDI) is the largest ever FDI infusion in India.

    Sunil Sood, MD & CEO, Vodafone India, said, “With our commitment to support the Digital India vision, we are building one of the most modern and scalable telecom networks to deliver connectivity and the Vodafone SuperNet™ experience to all, for both voice and data.”

    We have successfully increased our revenue market share by 0.6% in the first quarter of current fiscal. This equity infusion will enable Vodafone India to continue its investments in spectrum and expansion of networks across various technology layers.

  • Digital India: Vodafone receives largest-ever FDI

    Digital India: Vodafone receives largest-ever FDI

    MUMBAI: Vodafone India has made the largest-ever equity infusion of Rs 47,700 crore in the country.

    One of India’s leading telecom service-providers today announced that it had become the service provider of choice to over 200 million customers in India. As India’s second-largest telecom service provider with 22.5% revenue market share, over half of the customers (107 million) come from rural India endorsing Vodafone as the preferred brand in urban India as well as the hinterland.

    Vodafone further announced that it had received the equity infusion from Vodafone Group in the first half of the current fiscal. This infusion via foreign direct investment (FDI) is the largest ever FDI infusion in India.

    Sunil Sood, MD & CEO, Vodafone India, said, “With our commitment to support the Digital India vision, we are building one of the most modern and scalable telecom networks to deliver connectivity and the Vodafone SuperNet™ experience to all, for both voice and data.”

    We have successfully increased our revenue market share by 0.6% in the first quarter of current fiscal. This equity infusion will enable Vodafone India to continue its investments in spectrum and expansion of networks across various technology layers.

  • FY-16: Vodafone’s data revenue grows 45 percent; service revenue up 5 percent

    FY-16: Vodafone’s data revenue grows 45 percent; service revenue up 5 percent

    BENGALURU: Vodafone India reported 45.2 percent growth in revenue from data (browsing) for the year ended 31 March 2016 (FY-16, current year) as compared to the previous year. The telecom major’s total and service revenues in the current year increased 5 percent each as compared to FY-15. Vodafone’s reported data revenue for the current year at Rs 8,263 crore as against Rs 5,690 in Fy-15. Service revenue in the current year was Rs 44,303 crore as compared to Rs 42,204 crore in FY-15.

    Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.
    (c) All numbers are standalone. The Financial results for Vodafone India have been derived from the consolidated financial results of Vodafone Group Plc. and this may differ from Vodafone India’s financial statements prepared in Indian GAAP, Ind (AS) or IFRS.

    Vodafone reported total revenue in the current year at Rs 44.490 crore as compared to Rs 42,378 crore in the previous year. EBIDTA in FY-16 at Rs 13,115 crore (29.5 percent EBIDTA margin) grew 4.1 percent from Rs 12,598 crore (29.7 percent margin) in the previous year. Vodafone says that underlying service revenue growth percentage is adjusted for regulatory impacts.

    Vodafone India managing director and CEO Sunil Sood, commented,“We continue to deliver healthy double digit underlying revenue growth of 10 percent and a healthy EBITDA margin. There is a strong uptake in data and our usage has gone up 63 percent YoY. Last year, we also embarked on an ambitious initiative to invest, modernize and expand our network to launch Vodafone SuperNetTM –providing a seamless voice and data experience for our customers. Shortly, our 4G services will be available in 1000 towns across 9 circles in India. We remain committed to fulfil the evolving needs of our customers and leverage our global experience plus rich understanding of India to play a meaningful role in enabling Digital India.”

    Subscription numbers

    Vodafone’s customer base in FY-16 grew 7.7 percent to 19.79 crore from 18.38 crore in FY-15. Data users consuming more than 1 MB data in FY-16 grew 12 percent to 4.48 crore from 4 crore in the previous year.  Data Users grew 5.9 percent in FY-16 to 6.75 crore from 6.38 crore in FY-15. 3G users in FY-16 grew 43.3 percent to 2.78 crore from 1.94 crore in FY-15.

    Vodafone reported overall annualized subscriber churn of 51.8 percent as compared to 52.6 percent in the previous year. Post-paid subscriber churn in FY-16 increased to 21.7 percent from20.9 percent in the previous year, while post-paid subscriber churn increased to 54.1 percent from 52.6 percent from the previous year.

    Vodafone India is a 100 percent fully owned subsidiary of the Vodafone Group Plc. with operations across the country serving approximately 19.8 crore customers (over 10.7 crore in rural areas).

     

  • FY-16: Vodafone’s data revenue grows 45 percent; service revenue up 5 percent

    FY-16: Vodafone’s data revenue grows 45 percent; service revenue up 5 percent

    BENGALURU: Vodafone India reported 45.2 percent growth in revenue from data (browsing) for the year ended 31 March 2016 (FY-16, current year) as compared to the previous year. The telecom major’s total and service revenues in the current year increased 5 percent each as compared to FY-15. Vodafone’s reported data revenue for the current year at Rs 8,263 crore as against Rs 5,690 in Fy-15. Service revenue in the current year was Rs 44,303 crore as compared to Rs 42,204 crore in FY-15.

    Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.
    (c) All numbers are standalone. The Financial results for Vodafone India have been derived from the consolidated financial results of Vodafone Group Plc. and this may differ from Vodafone India’s financial statements prepared in Indian GAAP, Ind (AS) or IFRS.

    Vodafone reported total revenue in the current year at Rs 44.490 crore as compared to Rs 42,378 crore in the previous year. EBIDTA in FY-16 at Rs 13,115 crore (29.5 percent EBIDTA margin) grew 4.1 percent from Rs 12,598 crore (29.7 percent margin) in the previous year. Vodafone says that underlying service revenue growth percentage is adjusted for regulatory impacts.

    Vodafone India managing director and CEO Sunil Sood, commented,“We continue to deliver healthy double digit underlying revenue growth of 10 percent and a healthy EBITDA margin. There is a strong uptake in data and our usage has gone up 63 percent YoY. Last year, we also embarked on an ambitious initiative to invest, modernize and expand our network to launch Vodafone SuperNetTM –providing a seamless voice and data experience for our customers. Shortly, our 4G services will be available in 1000 towns across 9 circles in India. We remain committed to fulfil the evolving needs of our customers and leverage our global experience plus rich understanding of India to play a meaningful role in enabling Digital India.”

    Subscription numbers

    Vodafone’s customer base in FY-16 grew 7.7 percent to 19.79 crore from 18.38 crore in FY-15. Data users consuming more than 1 MB data in FY-16 grew 12 percent to 4.48 crore from 4 crore in the previous year.  Data Users grew 5.9 percent in FY-16 to 6.75 crore from 6.38 crore in FY-15. 3G users in FY-16 grew 43.3 percent to 2.78 crore from 1.94 crore in FY-15.

    Vodafone reported overall annualized subscriber churn of 51.8 percent as compared to 52.6 percent in the previous year. Post-paid subscriber churn in FY-16 increased to 21.7 percent from20.9 percent in the previous year, while post-paid subscriber churn increased to 54.1 percent from 52.6 percent from the previous year.

    Vodafone India is a 100 percent fully owned subsidiary of the Vodafone Group Plc. with operations across the country serving approximately 19.8 crore customers (over 10.7 crore in rural areas).