Vodafone service revenue up 13.8%

In terms of revenue growth, the country emerged as the second most important market after Turkey for the company

Vodafone India, the country’s second-largest cellular operator by subscriber base, on Friday reported a 13.8 per cent increase in service revenue at £1.09 billion (Rs 9,918 crore) for the quarter ended June.

For the corresponding period last year, it had reported service revenue of £963 million (Rs 8,724 crore).

In terms of growth in revenue, India emerged as the second-most important market for Vodafone Group Plc, after Turkey.

The British telecom company reported a 3.5 per cent fall in service revenue at £10.15 billion during the period.

In India, growth in service revenue was driven by strong growth in mobile voice minutes, a higher rate per minute and a more stable competitive environment, Vodafone said in a statement.

“Strong customer additions benefited from improved subscriber verification processes and a number of operators reducing their presence during the previous year,” it said.

Its mobile subscriber base rose by 2.7 million during the quarter, while data usage increased 29 per cent, compared to the previous quarter, owing to more data customers and higher usage per customer, particularly among 3G customers, the company said.

The company reported an active data customer base of 41.2 million, as of June 30. Of these, about 3.7 million were 3G subscribers.

Globally, Italy and Spain were the two primary markets that led to a fall in Vodafone’s service revenue. Group data usage grew 60 per cent, driven by increasing smartphone penetration, the company said. In India, smartphone penetration stood at 9.2 per cent, while in Turkey, it was 25.4 per cent, Vodafone said.

In May, Marten Pieters, managing director and chief executive of Vodafone’s India arm, had said the company’s investments would be data-driven, as growth was also expected to be data-driven. Though Vodafone India contributed about 10 per cent to the company’s global revenues, profitability was still a “concern” in India, Pieters had said.

For the year ended March 31, Vodafone India’s data revenue increased 50.5 per cent to Rs 2,000 crore. As of March 31, Vodafone India had only 3.3 million 3G customers, of the total data user base of 37.3 million.