Idea Cellular Q2 net profit up 7% to Rs 809.26 crore

New Delhi: Idea Cellular, India's third largest telecom operator by subscribers, Wednesday reported a 7 percent increase in net profit at Rs 809.26 crore for the July-September quarter, helped by non-voice revenue growth.

The company, however, witnessed a decline in voice usage and pressure on mobile data.

Idea, part of the Aditya Birla conglomerate, had reported a net profit of Rs 755.88 crore for the second quarter of the last fiscal.

Total revenue of the company rose to Rs 8,689.06 crore for the reported period, as compared to Rs 7,569.92 crore a year ago, Idea said in a statement.

It said voice minutes usage declined to 189.5 billion minutes for the reported quarter as compared to 195.8 billion minutes in the preceding three months (Q1 FY16).

The company said though it was able to contain, on sequential basis, voice rate decline by 0.2 paisa per minute to 32.7 paisa per minute for second quarter but the blended mobile data average realisation per MB fell by 1.2 paisa to 23.4 paisa per MB in the reported quarter.

Idea said its long-term business trends remain robust and the company is on course of its mission of consistent, competitive, responsible and profitable growth.

The non-voice revenue contribution improved to 27.9 percent this quarter against 21.1 percent a year ago, it added.

The net mobile data customer base (2G+3G) has risen by 4.2 million to 41.3 million with 24.8 percent of overall Idea subscriber base accessing internet, Idea said.

"With expansion of Idea's own 3G coverage in 12 circles and slated Idea 3G launch in Kolkata Metro service area shortly, net new data subscriber addition is expected to accelerate," it added.

On a sequential basis, Idea's net profit declined to Rs 809.3 crore in the reported period from Rs 930.8 crore the previous quarter while total revenue was down to Rs 8,689.1 crore from Rs 8,798.3 crore.

The higher mobile data usage per data customer at 615 MB (447 MB in Q2 FY15) helped improve the blended mobile data average revenue per user (ARPU) to Rs 144 in (vs Rs 119 in Q2FY15). ARPU of 3G customer stood at Rs 202.

"While mobile data rate has been under pressure (11.8 percent year-on-year decline), the faster 3G adoption has led to robust volume growth of overall mobile data traffic by nearly 1.83 times from 39.4 billion MB in Q2FY15 to 72 billion MB in Q2FY16," Idea said.

During the quarter under review, Idea spent Rs 1,726.6 crore on capital expenditure adding 9,947 sites.

It said industry revenue growth is trending low due to reduction in mobile incoming IUC charges settlement rate from 20 paisa to 14 paisa per minute from March 1, reduction in national call charges and SMS rate between 20-75 percent effective from May 1 and pressure on mobile data realised rate due to intense competition.