Vodafone Idea post Rs. 5,005 crore net loss in Q3 FY19

India's largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd has reported a net loss of Rs. 5,005 crore for the quarter ended December 31.

The total income of the telecom operator stood at Rs 11,982.8 crore during the same quarter and the income increased by 52 percent compared the previous July-September quarter.

Balesh Sharma, CEO Vodafone Idea limited, said, "The initiatives taken during the quarter started showing encouraging trends by the end of the quarter. We are moving faster than expected on integration, specifically on the network front, and we are well on track to deliver our synergy targets. We remain focused on fortifying our position in key districts by expanding the coverage and capacity of our 4G network, and target a higher share of new 4G customers while offering an enhanced network experience to our customers. The proceeds from the announced capital raise will put us in a strong position to achieve our strategic goals."

Meanwhile, the company added 11,123 4G sites during the quarter, including the addition of 9,066 sites on TDD.

The telco said that its 4G population coverage has improved rapidly to over 64 percent as at December 31, 2018 (compared to less than 50 percent for each of the brands in August 2018).

The company has added 9.5 million 4G customers, taking the overall 4G subscriber base to 75.3 million. The data volume of 2,705 billion MB for the quarter grew by 11.5 percent compared to the last quarter and average monthly data usage per data subscriber improved to 6.2 GB (vs 5.6 GB in Q2). Total minutes on the network declined by 2.6 percent during the quarter, largely attributable to the introduction of service validity vouchers.

Furthermore, the company has enhanced the capabilities of some of our 900 MHz sites through dynamic spectrum re-farming
and re-farmed 2100 MHz spectrum from 3G to 4G usage on selected sites.