Idea witnesses a decline of 6.4mn mobile data customers in Q4

Telecom services provider Idea Cellular of the Aditya Birla Group said that it has witnessed a sequential quarterly decline of 6.4 million mobile data customers in the fourth quarter at 42.2 million.

The company said that "the impact of free extended promotions was even more pronounced on mobile data business." Adding that the mobile data volume elasticity was negated by massive mobile data rate drop of 27.6 percent, though overall mobile data volume grew by 16.7 percent (vs Q3FY17) to 127 billion MB (2G+3G+4G).

The per subscriber data usage grew by 36.2 percent to 957 MB against 703 MB in Q3FY17 but the data average revenue per user for data subscribers (2G+3G+4G) remained flat in Q4FY17 at Rs. 110 against Rs. 111 (Q3FY17) and the 'Non-Voice Revenue' (including data) contribution to the 'overall service revenue' fell to 24.9 percent as mobile data revenue contribution declined to 18.3 percent (vs 20.2 percent in Q3FY17).

However, the company remains optimistic of a revival of mobile data subscriber addition & data revenue in FY18 as wireless broadband prices become more affordable for higher adoption by the Indian masses across all socio-economic & geographic segments.

Idea adds 50,004 mobile sites in FY17

Meanwhile, the company has added 50,004 mobile sites (2G+3G+4G), expanding its network to 241,540 sites, including 70 percent increase in its wireless broadband site (3G+4G) count from 64,703 sites as on March 31, 2016, to 110,054 sites as of March 31, 2017.

The idea also said that Idea Cellular also said that it will launch 4G services in Mumbai by the end of May 2017. With this, it will be offering broadband services (3G and or 4G) on its own spectrum across all 22 service areas and during the fourth quarter, Idea launched its 4G offerings in 8 service areas of Gujarat, UPW, UPE, Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and J&K, thus expanding its 4G broadband services to 19 telecom circles.