Delhi Delhi. Advocating further increase in tariffs, a senior Vodafone Idea official on Thursday said telecom customers who consume more data should pay more so that the industry can get fair returns and ensure connectivity to all sections of the society. . During Vodafone Idea (VIL)'s earnings call for the second quarter ending September 30, 2024, company CEO Akshay Mundra said BSNL's customer loss due to the recent tariff hike is due to the state-owned telecom firm's “network experience”. The reason is decreasing rapidly.
He said that the Indian wireless sector is at a turning point. Mundra said that while on one hand large investments are required to support the emergence of new technology and explosive data growth, on the other hand tariff affordability must be maintained to ensure connectivity to all sections of the society. He said, “This is possible when customers with higher usage will pay more, so that the industry can get a reasonable return on capital on the larger investment made. Therefore, the tariff needs to be made more rational for the industry to recover its cost of capital.” is required.” The debt-laden telco has reported a decline of Rs 7,175.9 crore in its consolidated revenue in the September quarter, mainly due to a rise in average revenue per user (ARPU) following the tariff hike in July.
The company's mobile subscriber ARPU, excluding machine-to-machine, grew 7.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 166 from Rs 154 in the April-June period, but was still lower than its rivals Reliance Jio and Airtel. Although the company lost customers on a quarterly basis due to the tariff hike, Vodafone Idea CEO Akshay Mundra still hinted at the need for another hike to cover the cost of capital. After the tariff hike, all three Private operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea lost a significant number of customers to BSNL, which mainly provides 3G service and 4G in select telecom circles.
On quarter-on-quarter basis, VIL's total subscriber base declined from 21 crore to 20.5 crore and 4G subscriber base declined from 12.67 crore to 12.59 crore. He said the September quarter was a weak quarter for subscriber growth, which further increased the decline. Mundra “While BSNL has been dominant in the quarter, we have seen this impact reverse quite sharply from August to September, September to October and October to November,” it said.
He said that somehow VIL is moving towards the position before the tariff hike, but it will still take some time to recover some of the losses incurred during the quarter. Mundra said, “We believe that This will be based on customer experience, as there is definitely a difference in experience for a customer who uses more data or voice. BSNL plans to launch 4G services across India by the middle of next year. During 2017, Vodafone Idea signed a massive deal worth around US$3.6 billion (about Rs 30,000 crore) to aggressively update its 4G network and launch 5G services in select circles.
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