Aug 10 (Reuters) – Vodafone Concept, India’s third-largest telecom operator, reported a narrower first-quarter loss on Monday, pushed by larger common income per person (ARPU) amid extra customers migrating to higher-value 4G and 5G providers.
The debt-laden firm’s consolidated loss after tax narrowed to 37.54 billion rupees ($393.91 million) within the quarter ended June 30, from 66.08 billion rupees final yr.
Vodafone Concept has been ramping up investments in its 4G and 5G community after securing recent promoter funding and authorities reduction on its telecom dues, aiming to slender the hole with bigger rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
After years of ceding market share to rivals amid under-investment, Vodafone Concept had stated sustained community investments had begun to sluggish subscriber losses, with month-to-month subscriber additions turning constructive from February 2026.
The wi-fi service’s person base rose to 193.1 million from 192.8 million within the earlier quarter – marking its first quarter of constructive internet subscriber addition for the reason that merger of Vodafone India with Concept.
The corporate’s ARPU – a key telecom metric – rose 10.2% year-on-year to 195 rupees, pushed by a 2.1% enhance in its 4G and 5G person base, although the metric remained the bottom amongst its friends.
Jio and Airtel beforehand posted a 7% and 37% rise of their quarterly earnings, respectively, aided by larger ARPU.
Vodafone Concept, 49%-owned by the Indian authorities, was shaped in 2018 via a merger between the Indian arm of the UK’s Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group’s Concept Mobile. It has largely remained loss-making since, whereas additionally carrying a heavy debt burden.
The corporate’s general income rose about 6% to 116.89 billion rupees, above analysts’ common estimate of 114.86 billion rupees.
Vodafone Concept’s whole bills dropped 3% to 172.42 billion rupees.
($1 = 95.3000 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Aleef Jahan and Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru; Modifying by Harikrishnan Nair and Shailesh Kuber)
