Mumbai: Vodafone Idea on Friday reported a consolidated loss of Rs 7,230.9 crore for the third quarter ending December 2021. This is up from Rs 4,532.1 crore that the telecom major reported in the corresponding quarter previous year.

It had posted a net consolidated loss of Rs 7,132 crore in the September quarter of 2021.

The company’s revenues also declined to Rs 9717 crore a year-on-year. The total gross debt (excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due) for the company stands at Rs. 1,98,980 crore, comprising of deferred spectrum payment obligations of 1,11300 crore, AGR liability of Rs 64,620 crore that is due to the government and debt from banks and financial institutions of Rs. 23,060 crore.

However, it improved its average revenue per user (ARPU) to Rs 115 up by 5.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter, due to several tariff interventions to improve ARPU, it said as it reported its Q3 results on Friday.

The total subscriber base declined to 24.72 crore. However, 4G subscriber base continued to grow with 8 lakh customers added in Q3, 4G base now stands at 11.7 crore. Subscriber churn increased to 3.4 per cent versus 2.9 per cent in the previous quarter. The data usage per 4G subscriber is now at ~14 Gb/month versus 12 Gb/month a year ago.

Vodafone Idea said that it added ~4000 4G FBB sites in Q3 primarily through the refarming of 2G/3G spectrum to expand their 4G coverage and capacity. Its overall broadband site count stood at 450,330 marginally lower compared to 450,481 in the previous quarter as it continued to shutdown 3G sites in a phased manner. Till date, the company has deployed nearly 67,000 TDD sites in addition to the deployment of ~13,850 massive MIO sites and ~13,150 small cells. Furthermore, the company continues to expand its LTE 900 presence in 12 circles at multiple locations, including through dynamic spectrum refarming, to improve customer experience.