Vodafone India service revenue drops 2% to 937 million pounds

Vodafone today reported a 2 per cent decline in its India service revenue to 937 million pounds (about Rs 9,541 crore) during the three months ended December 31.
The telecom company's revenue was 956 million pounds in the same period a year ago.
On an organic basis, India service revenue increased 13.2 per cent, driven by customer growth, higher voice usage, improved voice pricing and a doubling of data usage, the company said in a statement.
The UK-based company said organic growth presents performance on a comparable basis, both in terms of merger and acquisition activity and movements in foreign exchange rates.

Vodafone India Limited (VIL) emerged as the top growth market for the group in terms of organic growth during the quarter, while its European business declined 9.6 per cent.
VIL added 49 lakh mobile customers in the three-month period to take its total to 16 crore at the end of December, an increase of 8.8 per cent. Mobile Internet usage by its customers more than doubled.

Usage of 3G on the company's network averaged more than 700 megabytes a month in India. Vodafone said it had 4.5 crore active data customers, including 52 lakh 3G subscribers, at the end of December in the country. VIL added over 2,000 3G sites during the quarter.

Vodafone Group's revenue declined 3.6 per cent to 10,977 million pounds (about Rs 1.12 lakh crore) in the third quarter, while on an organic basis, it fell 4.3 per cent. The group's revenue from services was down 3.3 per cent to 9,856 million pounds.
Service revenue from Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific grew 5.5 per cent on an organic basis after increases in the customer base, usage and pricing strategies.
"Growth was led by strong performances in India, Qatar, Turkey and Ghana, and a robust performance in Vodacom," the company said.
Vodacom refers to the Group's interests in Vodacom Group Ltd and its units, including those outside of South Africa.

Overall revenue from the region declined 6 per cent, including a 12.5 percentage point impact from adverse foreign exchange rate movements, particularly with regard to the rupee, the South African rand, the Turkish lira and the Australian dollar, it said.
Vodafone said it proposes to acquire the entire indirect interest held by Analjit Singh and Neelu Analjit Singh in Vodafone India and the 10.97 per cent stake of Piramal Enterprises Ltd in VIL for about USD 1.6 billion.