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Tag: Vodafone Idea

  • Reliance Jio adds 1.76 million wireless subscribers in Oct

    Reliance Jio adds 1.76 million wireless subscribers in Oct

    Mumbai: Telecom giant Reliance Jio has added 1.76 million net wireless subscribers in October, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) subscription data. Vodafone Idea lost 0.96 million subscribers followed by Bharti Airtel at 0.48 million, the data revealed.

    The total number of wireless subscribers increased from 1166.02 million to 1166.30 million. In urban areas, wireless penetration decreased from 637.89 million to 637.44 million. Wireless subscriptions in rural areas increased from 528.13 million to 528.86 million.

    Trai reported 996.47 million active wireless subscribers out of which Reliance Jio had the highest share with 358.49 million followed by Bharti Airtel at 346.11 million, Vodafone Idea at 234.33 million and BSNL at 56.93 million.

    The number of telephone subscribers increased from 1189.15 million to 1189.62 million. Urban subscription decreased from 659.09 million to 658.83 million whereas rural subscription increased from 530.06 million to 530.79 million.

    In October, Trai received information from 577 broadband operators viz-a-viz 522 in the previous month. It reported that total broadband subscribers increased from 794.88 million to 798.95 million. The number of mobile device users increased from 769.22 million to 773.09 million. Wired subscribers increased from 24.39 million to 24.55 million and fixed wireless subscribers increased from 1.28 million to 1.31 million.

    At the end of October, the top five broadband service providers stood as follows Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd at 430.75 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel at 208.71 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea at 122.47 million subscribers, BSNL at 24.57 million subscribers and Atria Convergence at 1.97 million subscribers.

    The top five wired broadband service providers were BSNL at 4.72 million subscribers, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd at 4.16 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel at 3.98 million subscribers, Atria Convergence Technologies at 1.97 million subscribers and Hathway Cable & Datacom at 1.07 million subscribers.

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd at 426.60 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel at 204.73 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea at 122.47 million subscribers, BSNL at 19.85 million subscribers and Tikona Infinet Ltd. at 0.30 million subscribers.

    The number of wireline subscribers increased from 23.13 million to 23.32 million with a net increase of 0.19 million. BSNL and MTNL held 45.07 per cent of the wireline market share.

  • Vi ties up with ‘Hungama Music’ to offer premium music streaming service

    Vi ties up with ‘Hungama Music’ to offer premium music streaming service

    Mumbai: Strengthening its OTT-based digital content offerings, the telecom major Vodafone Idea on Monday launched its music offering on the Vi App in association with Hungama Music.

    Vi’s music offering with Hungama was unveiled by the musician and composer duo – Salim Sulaiman, who also performed at the launch event. Under the partnership, Vi will offer a six months premium subscription of Hungama Music at no extra cost to all its post-paid and prepaid customers. As part of the offering, customers will be able to listen to ad-free music in as many as 20 languages across genres from Hungama’s library of songs, Bollywood news, and podcasts. Vi customers can also attend 52 Live Digital Concerts on the Vi App, said the teleco major.

    Vi CMO Avneesh Khosla said, “Vi strives constantly to enrich the lives of its consumers through its partnerships with brands that have experience and expertise in the field of entertainment, education, health and financial services. Vi is committed to work with partners across varied domains to provide unique and compelling digital offerings for its consumers with varied needs and preferences. In the near future we will continue to see a lot newer initiatives being launched as this agenda gains scale and momentum.”

    Khosla further added that the launch will fulfill the customers’ need for a comprehensive music streaming service. “Our association with Hungama will allow Vi users to get access to a rich repository of diverse music, across genres and in their preferred language,” he said.

    Hungama Media founder Neeraj Roy said, “Our association with Vi has seen us introduce a first-of-its-kind Pay Per View service model in India’s exploding Premium Video On Demand (PVOD) market, earlier this year. The partnership aligns with Hungama’s aim to explore and develop innovative ways to entertain and engage audiences across the world. Our repertoire is consistently expanding to include a diverse, and rich line-up of multi-genre, multi-lingual content across audio, video, and gaming.”

  • Reliance Jio lost 19 million wireless subscribers in September: Trai

    Reliance Jio lost 19 million wireless subscribers in September: Trai

    Mumbai: Reliance Jio lost 19.02 million wireless subscribers in the month of September, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) subscription data. Bharti Airtel added 0.27 million subscribers and Vodafone Idea lost 1.07 million subscribers in the same period.

    Total wireless subscribers decreased from 1186.72 million to 1166.02 million. Wireless subscription from urban areas decreased from 650.39 million to 637.89 million. In rural areas, wireless subscription decreased from 536.33 million to 538.13 million.

    In terms of active base, there were 995.67 million wireless subscribers with Reliance Jio having the largest base of active users at 355.37 million followed by Bharti Airtel at 346.88 million and Vodafone Idea at 235.73 million.

    The number of telephone subscribers decreased from 1209.58 million to 1189.15 million. Urban telephone subscription decreased from 671.31 million to 659.09 million. Rural subscription decreased from 538.28 million to 530.06 million.

    Trai received information from 522 operators in September compared to 499 operators last month. The total number of broadband subscribers decreased from 813.47 million to 794.88 million. Mobile device users decreased from 787.94 million to 769.22 million. Wired subscribers increased marginally from 24.29 million to 24.39 million. Fixed wireless subscribers increased from 1.24 million to 1.28 million.

    The top five service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm (428.78 million), Bharti Airtel (207.30 million), Vodafone Idea (122.37 million), BSNL (24.15 million), and Atria Convergence (1.96 million).

    The top five wired broadband service providers were BSNL (5.05 million), Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (3.94 million), Bharti Airtel (3.85 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.96 million), and Hathway Cable & Datacom (1.08 million).

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (424.84 million), Bharti Airtel (203.45 million), Vodafone Idea (122.36 million), BSNL (19.10 million), and Tikona Infinet Ltd. (0.30 million).

    The total wireline subscribers increased from 22.86 million to 23.13 million and saw a net increase of 0.27 million. Reliance Jio added 237,411 subscribers followed by Bharti Airtel at 126,937 and Vodafone Idea at 3100.

  • Vodafone Idea records revenue growth of 2.8 per cent QoQ in Q2 FY2022

    Vodafone Idea records revenue growth of 2.8 per cent QoQ in Q2 FY2022

    Mumbai: Vodafone Idea recorded revenue growth of 2.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in Q2 FY2022. The telecom company reported revenues of Rs 94.1 billion for the quarter.

    EBIDTA for the quarter improved to Rs 38.6 billion up by 4.6 per cent QoQ. EBITDA margins improved to 41.1 per cent over 40.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Capex spends for the quarter was Rs 13 billion.

    Vodafone Idea’s subscriber base stands at 253 million, a decline of 2.4 million YoY. The company saw a healthy addition of 3.3 million subscribers to its 4G base which stands at 116.2 million. The company reported improved subscriber churn at 2.9 per cent vs 3.5 per cent last year for the corresponding quarter.

    The company reported improved ARPUs of Rs 109 up by 5.3 per cent QoQ. “This quarter we had taken certain pricing initiatives to improve ARPU, in line with our stated strategy. We increased the entry level prepaid pricing plan from Rs. 49 to Rs. 79, in a phased manner, as well as increased the tariffs in some postpaid plans,” said the statement.

    The company’s total gross debt (excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due) stands at Rs. 1947.8 billion, comprising of deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs. 1086.1 billion, AGR liability of Rs. 634.0 billion that is due to the government and debt from banks and financial institutions of Rs. 227.7 billion.

    “We welcome the Government’s landmark reform package which addresses several industry concerns and provides immediate relief to the financial stress in the sector,” said Vodafone Idea chief executive officer Ravinder Takkar. “During the last quarter, we witnessed a recovery in our operating momentum as the economy has started to gradually open up aided by the ongoing rapid vaccination drive. We continue to focus on executing our strategy to improve our competitive position and win in the marketplace.”

  • Vodafone Idea lost 0.83 million wireless subscribers in Aug: Trai

    Vodafone Idea lost 0.83 million wireless subscribers in Aug: Trai

    Mumbai: Vodafone Idea lost 0.83 million wireless subscribers in August, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) subscription data. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have added 0.64 million and 0.13 million wireless subscribers, respectively.

    Total wireless subscribers decreased from 1,186.84 million to 1,186.72 million seeing a net subscriber decline of 1.1 million. Wireless subscriptions in urban areas increased from 650.10 million to 650.39 million, however, wireless subscriptions in rural areas decreased from 536.74 million to 536.33 million, revealed the data.

    Out of 1,186.72 million wireless subscribers, 991.71 million were active. Reliance Jio reported 350.63 million active wireless subscribers, Bharti Airtel stood at 346.84 million, and Vodafone Idea at 236.49 million.

    The number of telephone subscribers increased from 1,209.45 million to 1,209.58 million. Urban telephone subscriptions increased from 670.75 million to 671.31 million, however, the rural subscription decreased from 538.70 million to 538.28 million.

    Trai received information from 499 operators in August versus 455 operators in July and reported that the total broadband subscribers increased from 808.60 million to 813.47 million. Mobile device users grew from 783.39 million to 787.94 million, wired subscribers grew marginally from 24.01 million to 24.09 million and fixed wireless subscribers grew marginally from 1.19 million to 1.24 million.

    The top five service providers constituted 98.75 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers. These were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (447.57 million), Bharti Airtel (205.96 million), Vodafone Idea (123.53 million), BSNL (24.28 million), and Atria Convergence (1.95 million).

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (443.86 million), Bharti Airtel (202.27 million), Vodafone Idea (123.52 million), BSNL (18.19 million), and Tikona Infinet Ltd (0.30 million).

    The top five wired broadband service providers were BSNL (5.49 million), Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (3.71 million), Bharti Airtel (3.69 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.95 million), and Hathway Cable & Datacom (1.08 million).

    The total wireline subscribers increased from 22.61 million to 22.86 million, a net subscriber increase of 0.25 million. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel led the growth by adding 0.25 million and 0.10 million subscribers, respectively. Vodafone Idea added 7870 subscribers whereas BSNL, MTNL, Tata Telecommunications, Reliance Communications, and Quadrant lost subscribers.  

  • Reliance Jio added 6.5 million mobile subscribers in July: Trai

    Reliance Jio added 6.5 million mobile subscribers in July: Trai

    Mumbai: Reliance Jio added 6.5 million mobile subscribers in July, according to the latest data shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Airtel added 1.9 million mobile subscribers and Vodafone Idea lost 1.4 million subscribers, the telecom regulator said.

    BSNL lost 1.01 million subscribers as well. MTNL and Reliance Communication lost a few thousand subscribers. Net mobile subscribers grew by 6 million.

    Total wireless subscribers grew from 1180.83 million to 1186.84 million at a monthly growth rate of 0.51 per cent. Wireless subscriptions in urban areas increased from 646.29 million to 650.10 million. In rural areas, it increased from 534.54 million to 536.74 million.

    Out of total wireless subscribers, 989.34 were active mobile subscribers. Reliance Jio had 346.49 million active subscribers, Bharti Airtel had 346.07 and Vodafone Idea had 238.39.

    Total telephone subscribers increased from 1202.57 million to 1209.45 million at the end of July. Urban telephone subscriptions increased from 666.10 million to 670.75 million. Rural subscriptions increased from 536.47 million to 538.70 million.

    As per information received by 455 operators in July 2021 in comparison to 440 operators in June 2021, total broadband subscribers increased from 792.78 million to 808.68 million at a monthly growth rate of 2 per cent. Wired subscribers increased from 23.52 million to 24.01 million, mobile device users increased from 768.61 million to 783.39 million and fixed wireless subscribers increased from 0.65 million to 1.19 million.

    The top five service providers constituted 98.77 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of July. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (446.69 million), Bharti Airtel (201.77 million), Vodafone Idea (123.97 million), BSNL (24.26 million), and Atria Convergence (1.93 million).

    The top five wired broadband service providers were BSNL (5.83 million), Bharti Airtel (3.54 million), Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (3.47 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.93 million), and Hathway Cable & Datacom (1.07 million).

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm (443.61 million), Bharti Airtel (198.23 million), Vodafone Idea (123.97 million), BSNL (17.89 million), and Tikona Infinet Ltd (0.31 million).  

    Wireline subscribers increased from 21.74 million to 22.61 million with a monthly growth rate of 4.04 per cent. The share of urban and rural subscribers stood at 91.32 per cent and 8.68 per cent. BSNL and MTNL held 47.93 per cent of the wireline market. Net wireline subscribers increased by 8.7 million. BSNL added 5.06 million, Reliance Jio added 0.25 million and Bharti Airtel added 0.12 million subscribers, respectively.

  • ARPU target 200; Indian mobile subscribers trudge along at Rs 94.87

    ARPU target 200; Indian mobile subscribers trudge along at Rs 94.87

    Mumbai: Indian mobile subscribers consumed 11.76 Gb of data on average per month and generated an average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs 94.87 at the end of December 2020, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

    At a press conference earlier this month, Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal stressed the importance of hiking tariffs and bringing ARPUs to at least Rs 200 by the end of the financial year 2022, for the sustainable growth of the sector.

    ARPU per month has increased from Rs 74.88 in the year 2019 to Rs 94.87 in 2020 and minutes of usage has increased from 701 minutes to 759 minutes in the same period. ARPU for post-paid service customers decreased from Rs 259.02 to Rs 226.83 while for prepaid service customers, it increased from Rs 66.48 to Rs 88.37. The total gross revenue of the telecom sector has increased from Rs 2,43,702 crore to Rs 2,74,208 crore.

    Notably, revenues from data usage and calls have almost doubled. Revenue from data usage has increased from Rs 42.37 to Rs 81.81 whereas revenue from calls has grown from Rs 8.12 to Rs 17.72. Rental revenue has sharply declined from Rs 31.07 to Rs 0.95, as per TRAI.

    Mobile data usage has grown by 35.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY). The total revenue from wireless data usage increased from Rs 59,334 crore to Rs 113,156 crore with a yearly growth rate of 90.71 per cent. The ARPUs for wireless data usage alone increased from Rs 76.59 to Rs 128.61.

    Airtel reported ARPUs of Rs 121 at the end of December 2020 as per the company’s annual report. In their recent quarterly earnings report, the company disclosed that ARPUs had increased to Rs 146. On the other hand, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea reported ARPUs of Rs 138 and Rs 104, at the end of the fourth quarter for FY 2021.

    India’s ARPUs are the lowest in the world at $1.8 whereas countries like Brazil, China, EU and the US ARPUs stand at $4.6, $6.7, $12.1, and $37.8, respectively. Indian mobile customers consume more Gb of data than any of these countries (GSMA Intelligence Database, Sept 2020). While consumers get more benefits and value from unlimited voice and daily data allowances, compared to five years ago, India’s ARPUs are actually lower in comparison to historic trends.

    The ARPU erosion is due to telecom operators aggressively defending their subscriber base by selling heavily discounted voice plans with bundled data despite tremendous growth in the volume of voice and data usage in the last few years. There has been an industry-wide call to hike the floor prices which prevents telcos from undercutting each other across various services.

    Recently, the telecom players Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea took some solace as the government announced relief measures for the sector including a moratorium of four years on interest rates related to payment of AGR dues. It also announced 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector and made it easier to get clearance for tower installation.

    India’s wireless internet subscribers grew by 10.52 per cent YoY and wired internet subscribers grew by 14.07 per cent. The number of wireless internet subscribers grew from 696.36 million to 769.64 million, where wired internet subscribers grew from 22.39 million to 25.54 million in December 2020.

    The total number of internet subscribers grew to 795.18 million, with Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL having 51.6 per cent, 25.5 per cent, 17.3 per cent and 4.1 per cent of the market share, respectively.

  • Jio, Airtel add millions of mobile subscribers in June: TRAI

    Jio, Airtel add millions of mobile subscribers in June: TRAI

    Mumbai: Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel (including Tata Teleservices) added 5.4 million and 3.8 million mobile subscribers whereas Vodafone Idea lost 4.2 million subscribers, according to the latest subscription data shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Reliance Communications added 917 subscribers growing its subscriber base by 10 per cent, it showed.

    Total wireless subscribers increased from 1176.84 million to 1180.83 million at a monthly growth rate of 0.34 per cent. The number of active wireless subscribers stood at 984.79 million. Bharti Airtel had the maximum proportion of active subscribers at 343.71 million. Jio had 340.34 million and Vodafone Idea had 241.71 million active subscribers. Excluding Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, all service areas showed growth in wireless subscribers for the period.

    The number of telephone subscribers increased from 1198.50 million to 1202.57 million. Urban telephone subscriptions increased from 661.18 million to 666.10 million. However, rural telephone subscriptions decreased from 537.52 million to 536.47 million. The overall teledensity increased from 87.84 per cent to 88.07 per cent. The wireless teledensity increased from 86.25 per cent to 86.48 per cent, the data showed.

    As per reports received from 440 operators in the month of June, the number of broadband subscribers increased from 780.27 million to 792.78 million. The top five service providers constituted 98.77 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers. These service providers were Reliance Jio (439.91 million), Bharti Airtel (197.14 million), Vodafone Idea (121.42 million), BSNL (22.69 million), and Atria Convergence (1.91 million).

    The top five wired broadband service providers were BSNL (6.03 million), Bharti Airtel (3.37 million), Reliance Jio Infocomm (3.22 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.91 million), and Hathway Cable & Datacom (1.06 million).

    The top five wireless broadband subscribers were Reliance Jio Infocomm (436.69 million), Bharti Airtel (193.74 million), Vodafone Idea (121.41 million), BSNL (16.67 million), and Tikona Infinet (0.31 million).

    Wireline subscribers increased from 20.36 million to 21.66 million. The overall wireline teledensity increased from 1.49 per cent to 1.59 per cent. BSNL and MTNL held 48.72 per cent of the wireline market. BSNL added 1.1 million new wireline subscribers whereas Reliance Jio 0.1 million new wireline subscribers at the end of June.  

  • Vodafone Idea loses 12.3 million subscribers in Q1 FY22

    Vodafone Idea loses 12.3 million subscribers in Q1 FY22

    Mumbai: Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) revenue has been declined by 4.7 per cent quarter on quarter (QoQ) to Rs 91.5 billion at the end of the first quarter FY22. EBITDA for the quarter was Rs 37.1 billion, with EBITDA margins at 40.5 per cent vs 45.9 per cent in Q4 FY21. The CapEx spend for the quarter was Rs 9.4 billion vs Rs 15.4 billion in the previous quarter.

    The telecom company reported total gross debt (excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due) of Rs 1915.9 billion, as of 30 June. This includes deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 1060.1 billion and AGR liability of Rs 621.8 billion that are due to the government and debt from banks and financial institutions of Rs 234 billion. Cash and cash equivalents were Rs 9.2 billion and net debt stood at Rs 1906.7 billion.

    The company said its broadband site count stood at 447,114, lower compared to 452,650 in Q4 FY21 as it continues to actively shut down 3G sites. “Our 4G network covers over one billion Indians as of 30 June,” it added.

    The subscriber base has declined by 12.3 million and stands at 255.4 in this quarter vs 267.8 million in the previous quarter. The telco’s 4G base declined to 112.9 million vs 113.9 million in the previous quarter. The subscriber churn was 3.5 per cent in Q1 FY22 vs 3.0 in Q4 FY21. ARPU declined to Rs 104 vs Rs 107 in the previous quarter. The data volumes witnessed strong growth of 13.2 per cent quarter on quarter. Data usage per broadband subscriber surged to 14.6 GB/month vs 12.8 GB/month in the previous quarter.

    “The severe second wave of COVID-19 caused significant disruptions and slowdown in economic activities,” said VIL managing director and chief executive officer, Ravinder Takkar. “During these challenging times, VIL continued to serve its customers and community at large by providing seamless connectivity as well as maintaining superior quality of services.”

    “Vi GIGAnet’s superior network experience on both data and voice, is testified through top rankings in independent external reports. We continue to focus on executing our strategy to keep our customers ahead, and our cost optimisation plan remains on track to deliver the targeted savings. We are in active discussion with potential investors for fundraising, to achieve our strategic intent,” Takkar added.

  • Kumar Mangalam Birla steps down as non-executive chairman of Voda Idea

    Kumar Mangalam Birla steps down as non-executive chairman of Voda Idea

    Mumbai: Kumar Mangalam Birla has stepped down as non-executive director and non-executive chairman of Vodafone Idea, the company said on Wednesday.

    “The board of directors of Vodafone Idea, at its meeting held today, have accepted the request of Kumar Mangalam Birla to step down as non-executive director and non-executive chairman of the board with effect from close of business hours on 4 August 2021,” Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) said in a regulatory filing.

    The board has “unanimously” elected current non-executive director Himanshu Kapania as the non-executive chairman of the firm.

    Kapania is a telecom industry veteran with 25 years of experience, including significant board experience in telecom companies globally. He has also served on the Global GSMA Board for two years and was also chairman of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) for two years.

    “Further, based on recommendation of Nomination and Remuneration Committee, the board has appointed Sushil Agarwal, a nominee of Aditya Birla Group, as an additional director (non-executive and non-independent) with effect from 4 August 2021,” VIL added.