3G growth bolsters Idea bottom line

Idea Cellular, India’s fourth largest wireless provider by subscribers, has booked revenues of INR60.95 billion (USD1.128 billion) for its fiscal Q4 2013, ended 31 March 2013, compared to income of INR54.04 billion from the corresponding period of 2012. Revenues for the year totalled INR225.95 billion, up from INR196.80 billion twelve months earlier whilst earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) totalled INR15.04 billion for the quarter and INR53.71 billion for the year. The cellco’s bottom line was buoyed to INR13.07 billion for the three month period by strong subscriber growth, particularly in the lucrative data segment. The cellco claimed 121.6 million customers as at 31 March 2013, up from 113.9 million three months earlier, whilst 3G users increased to 5.1 million from 4.1 million over the same period. Monthly average data use per subscriber dropped slightly to 163MB from 167MB in the three months to 31 December 2012.