Vodafone Idea losses widen to ₹25,460 crore – over 75% of it is money set aside for AGR dues

• Vodafone Idea has posted a loss of ₹25,460 crore for the first quarter of the current financial year.
• The telecom’s revenue fell by 9.3% to ₹10660 crore.
• The Average Revenue Per User stood at ₹114, which is much lesser than its rival Jio’s ARPU of ₹140.3 during the same quarter.

Troubled telecom giant Vodafone Idea has posted a loss of ₹25,460 crore for the first quarter of the current financial year, compared to ₹6673.8 crores the previous year. This is because it has set aside ₹19440 crore towards dues that it owes the government.

The telecom’s revenue fell by 9.3% to ₹10660 crore.The Average Revenue Per User stood at ₹114, which is much lesser than its rival Jio’s ARPU of ₹140.3 during the same quarter.

Vodafone Idea, once India’s largest telecom giant, continues to struggle to hold on to its subscriber base, which declined to 279.8 million in the June-ending quarter, as opposed to 291.1 million as of March 2020. This at a time when it’s competitors have seen a stronger subscriber base.

“Q1FY21 was a challenging quarter as availability of recharges due to store closure and ability of customers to recharge on account of economic slowdown were impacted. 4G coverage and capacity expansion remains a priority for us to further improve our customers’ experience and we continue to lead the league tables on 4G data download speeds across several states, metros and large cities,” said Ravinder Takkar, MD & CEO, Vodafone Idea in a statement.

However, the company said that it has seen strong data volume growth of 10.6%, highest in the last 6 quarters and the data usage per broadband subscriber increased to 13 GB per month.

Takkar also said that the company continues to actively engage with the government to seek a comprehensive relief package for the industry, which faces critical challenges.

The company’s gross debt (excluding lease liabilities) stood at ₹118,940 crore, including the deferred spectrum payment obligations of ₹92,270 crore.