Net sales rose 9.2% year-on-year to Rs 10613 crore in Q3 December 2022, aided by improvement in subscriber mix, tariff intervention and 4G subscriber additions.

On a reported basis, EBITDA for the quarter stood at Rs 4180 crore, up 2.03% against Rs 4097.50 crore in Q2 FY23. EBITDA margins were at 39.4%, higher than 38.6% in Q2 FY23.

EBITDA for the quarter, excluding IndAS 116 impact, is Rs 2000 crore compared to Rs 2120 crore in Q2FY23, primarily due to higher charge on account of customer acquisition costs and higher network expenses partially offset by the savings in spectrum usage charges. Capex spend for the quarter stood at Rs 750 crore versus Rs 1210 crore in Q2FY23.

ARPU (average revenue per user) improved to Rs 135, up 3.3% QoQ vs Rs 131 in Q2FY23. On a YoY basis, ARPU witnessed strong growth of 17.4% aided by tariff hikes and migration of subscribers to unlimited plans.

The 4G subscriber base continued to grow and with 1 million 4G customers added in Q3, 4G subscriber base now stands at 121.6 million, though the overall subscriber base declined to 228.6 million vs 234.4 million in Q2FY23. The company said it continues to see high data usage per broadband customer at ~15.1 GB/month with the total data traffic witnessing sequential growth of 0.8%.

Continued network capacity expansion was supported by spectrum refarming and network upgrade.

Akshaya Moondra, CEO, Vodafone Idea, said "We are pleased to report sixth consecutive quarter of revenue growth and 4G subscriber addition on the back of superior data and voice experience offered by Vi GIGAnet. We have issued equity shares to the Government of India recently, consequent to conversion of the interest related to deferment of spectrum and AGR dues into equity. Separately, our board has approved issuance of Optionally Convertible Debentures amounting to Rs. 16 billion to ATC India. With these positive developments, we continue to remain engaged with our lenders for further debt fund raising as well as with other parties for equity or equity linked fund raising, to make required investments for network expansion and 5G rollout."

The total gross debt (excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due) as of 31 December 2022 stands at Rs 2,22,890 crore, comprising of deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 1,39,800 crore and AGR liability of Rs 69,910 crore that are due to the government, and debt from banks and financial institutions of Rs 13,190 crore. With cash & cash equivalents of Rs 160 crore, the net debt stands at Rs 2,22,730 crore.

In line with the Reforms and Support Package for Telecom Sector communicated on 15 September 2021, Vodafone had opted for the upfront conversion of interest arising due to deferment of spectrum instalments and AGR dues into equity. On 3 February 2023, Ministry of Communications, GoI has passed an order directing the Company to convert the NPV of the interest related to deferment of spectrum auction instalments and AGR Dues into equity shares to be issued to GoI. The total amount to be converted into equity shares is Rs 16133 crore. The board of the company has taken necessary steps and issued 1613 crore equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each at an issue price of Rs 10 each. With this issuance, the promoter shareholding now stands at about 50% and GoI shareholding is at about 33%.

Vodafone Idea is an Aditya Birla Group and Vodafone Group partnership. The company provides pan India Voice and Data services across 2G, 3G and 4G platforms. It holds large spectrum portfolio including mid band 5G spectrum in 17 circles and mmWave 5G spectrum in 16 circles.

Shares of Vodafone Idea rose 0.65% to Rs 7.74 on the BSE.