The teleco had recorded a loss of Rs 7,319.1 crore in Q1 FY22.

Revenue for the quarter was Rs. 9,410 crore, an improvement of 2.8% QoQ, aided by pick up in the economic activities and easing of lockdown/restrictions induced by severe second wave of COVID, which impacted Q1 FY22.

On a reported basis, EBITDA for the quarter improved to Rs. 3860 crore, up 4.2% QoQ, aided by improvement in revenue which was partially offset by increase in customer acquisition costs due to higher gross additions during the quarter and other inflationary cost increases. EBITDA margins were 41.1% as against 40.5% in Q1 FY22.

Capex spend for Q2 FY22 was Rs 1,300 crore as against Rs 940 crore in Q1 FY22.

The total gross debt (excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due) as of 30 September 2021 was Rs 1,94,780 crore, comprising of deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 1,08,610 crore, AGR liability of Rs 63,400 crore that are due to the Government and debt from banks and financial institutions of Rs 22,770 crore. Cash & cash equivalents were Rs 250 crore and net debt stood at Rs 1,94,530 crore.

The subscriber base stood at 253 million as against 255.4 million in Q1 FY22, a decline of 2.4 million. However, the 4G subscriber base saw healthy addition of 3.3 million, with overall 4G base now at 116.2 million. Subscriber churn has also improved to 2.9% in Q2 FY22 as compared to 3.5% in Q1 FY22.

As Q1 FY22 witnessed significantly higher data usage during the lockdown, the QoQ data volume growth remained moderate at 0.4%. On a YoY basis, data volumes have witnessed strong growth of 27.1%. Data usage per 4G subscriber was at 14.5 GB per month as against 11.8 GB per month a year ago.

ARPU improved to Rs. 109, up 5.3% QoQ vs Rs. 104 in Q1 FY22. This quarter, the company had taken certain pricing initiatives to improve ARPU, in line with its stated strategy. It had increased the entry level prepaid pricing plan from Rs. 49 to Rs. 79, in a phased manner, as well as increased the tariffs in some postpaid plans.

On 15 September 2021, the Government announced a comprehensive reform package for the Indian telecom sector including measures to address the structural, procedural and liquidity issues.

Vodafone Idea has opted for 4 years of deferment for both spectrum and AGR dues. The company has the option to convert the interest arising from deferment of these instalments into equity, which can be exercised by 12 January 2022.

Ravinder Takkar, MD & CEO, Vodafone Idea, said “During the last quarter, we witnessed a recovery in our operating momentum as the economy has started to gradually open up aided by the ongoing rapid vaccination drive. We continue to improve our 4G subscriber base on the back of superior data and voice experience on Vi GIGAnet.”

Vodafone Idea is an Aditya Birla Group and Vodafone Group partnership. It is amongst India's leading telecom service provider. The company provides pan India Voice and Data services across 2G, 3G and 4G platforms.

The scrip jumped 4.66% to end at Rs 10.34 on the BSE today.