Vodafone India Apr-Sept revenue up over 11% at Rs 20,747 cr

Country's second largest operator Vodafone India's revenue grew over 11 per cent to Rs 20,746.9 crore for the first six months of the current fiscal on higher data uptake, customer additions and stable pricing.
The company had reported total revenue of Rs 18,571.1 crore in the April-September period of last fiscal.
The data (Browsing) revenue was Rs 2,552.5 crore in the first half of 2014-15 and it now contributes 13.5 per cent to the company's service revenue.
"We have delivered a healthy double digit revenue growth driven by strong customer additions and robust growth in data," Vodafone India MD and CEO Marten Pieters said here.

It has 57.2 million total data users, of which 13.6 million are 3G users. Vodafone had 174 million subscribers at the end of September.
The company said data drivers include factors such as higher smartphone penetration and strategic partnerships with handset manufacturers and application providers to provide innovative value propositions and better customer experience.

Data average revenue per user (ARPU) grew to Rs 142, as compared to Rs 130 in the same period last year. The average revenue per minute stood at 49.9 paisa and ARPU at Rs 200.
Vodafone has a network of over 1,24,000 sites.
On spectrum availability, Pieters said its inadequacy is one of the most serious challenges facing the mobile industry.

He reiterated his stand that auctions should be conducted when there is enough spectrum available.
"We agree and the regulator also agrees that doing an auction when there is no additional spectrum available is just not the right thing to do...It would be a disappointment for the industry," Pieters said.
He added that given the situation for Vodafone, it is very easy for competition to drive the prices up.
If operators have to pay such high price for spectrum alone, then investments in network suffer, he said, adding that the government should make more radiowaves available.
"...You milk the industry so far that there is kind of no money left to make investments in networks or you say enough is enough and you make sure that spectrum becomes cheaper... If you see enough supply of spectrum, prices go down, then there will be more money available for operators to invest in networks," Pieters said.

The telecom industry is already witnessing decreased investments in networks.
"...Only the top three are investing and the new one (Reliance Jio) which is yet to start the services," he added.
The company made a capital expenditure of Rs 3,509.1 crore during H1 FY'15.