Vodafone India / Essar – ARPU Drops 10% – Facing the Heat
In line with other GSM operators, Vodafone India reported its numbers for the quarter ending Sept-2009. ARPU has dropped to INR 222, a 10% decline compared to previous quarter [INR 247]. ARPM drop was rather sharp at 7% [from INR 0.75 to 0.70] on a QoQ basis compared to Airtel and Idea which have seen it fall by 3.6%. Vodafone has the best ARPM compared to other operators in India. MoU also down to 319 from 330.
Absolute EBITDA too fell 2% due to sharp tariff cuts and new launches. It witnessed higher churn this quarter at 2.8%. Vodafone’s capex is also in-line with peers. 1H capex stood at Rs41bn (Rs56 in 2H09), higher than Bharti Airtel though. Read more
Wireless Operartors Revenue + Subscriber Market Share – Airtel Leads
With inputs from TRAI on Adjusted Gross Revenues of wireless operators directly from 2G Wireless Services and no gimmick [RCom's bundling of proprietary handsets, etc] Bharti Airtel commands a whopping 33.3% revenue market share at the end of Sept-2009. Vodafone India ranks second with 20.4% followed by Idea Cellular with 12.1% which has pipped Reliance Communications out of the top 3 – 12.0% [ If RCom is really competitive, it should make it Revenue Market share rise to atleast 15% within the next 12 months as their GSM network is fully stabilized and underutilized]
We are into a new era of holding multiple SIMs where subscriber Read more
2G GSM + CDMA Spectrum Allocation till Date Vs Subscribers in India
I undertook a joint study with an associate of mine on the distribution and allocation of 2G Wireless Spectrum in India across all Circles and all operators. The main motive of the study was of course to figure out viability of wireless broadband for various operators. However, I thought I’ll share the Spectrum that operators are holding to as it is now believed to be a Multi-Billion Dollar SCAM 
My associate has published the complete mobile spectrum allocation details here [ Recently, you heard A.Raja blaming it back on BJP Government, you can make the guess by browsing the Matrix ].
BSNL+ MTNLÂ together are holding the highest Spectrum Read more
RCom Reveals – Wireless Revenues Included Handset Sales – Discrepancy in Revenues Explained
This has come as a surprise to me and most of the analysts in the call that Reliance Communications booked revenues by sales of proprietary CDMA handsets as Wireless Revenues. JeeZ!!!! This means actual Wireless Services Revenues far below competitors ? Since Tata Indicom is unlisted, we don’t know about it. But Airtel & Vodafone did bundle handsets, did they also do the same ? This explain the discrepancy in Wireless Revenues reported by the company to BSE & NSE and that reported by TRAI. [ Anyway, I am not an accounting major to audit and pin-point, but you understand the practice followed here] More excerpts from the call as follows, [My comments in Brackets] Read more
Reliance Mobile ARPU Drops 24% in Q2- Broadband ARPU Rises
RCom quietly announced its results yesterday [if you run a company and have bad results to announce, do so on a holiday, only if you are worried about huge SELL OFF in your stock] and the numbers look way too ugly. Employees at the Wireless division must be singing Queen’s song – Under Pressure Look at Wireless ARPU Rs 161 [GSM + CDMA + FWP] it has dropped 24% QoQ. EBITDA down 20% and Net profit has halved. Awesome!!! Quick peek into the results, Read more
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