Telecom major Idea Cellular on Wednesday reported deeper losses of Rs 1,284.5 crore for the quarter ended December 31, hurt by a “sharp” cut in call connect charges and the “unrelenting”rate pressure.
Idea’s losses stood at Rs 383.9 crore in the year-ago period, and Rs 1,106.6 crore in the trailing September quarter, as per a BSE filing.
The merger with Vodafone India is in the final leg of regulatory approval and is expected to complete in the first half of 2018, Idea said in a statement.
The numbers comes nearly a week after Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom operator, reported over 39 per cent fall in consolidated net profit for third quarter this fiscal to about Rs 306 crore.
In contrast, Reliance Jio posted profits of Rs 504 crore in just second quarter of commercial operations on the back of dirt cheap data offerings. The aggressive newcomer, which has often been blamed by the industry for its financial woes, yesterday unleashed yet another round of data tariff war.
Idea’s revenue from operations was at Rs 6,509.6 crore for the third quarter, almost 25 per cent lower than Rs 8,662.7 crore in the same period previous fiscal.
The company blamed reduction in call connect charges and the sustained rate pressure for the impact on its earnings.
“The regulation imposed 57 per cent sharp decline in IUC (Interconnect Usage Charges) settlement rates Negatively impacted Idea’s Revenue and EBITDA for this quarter by Rs 8,200 million (Rs 820 crore) and Rs 2,300 million (Rs 230 crore), respectively,” the statement said.
The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation or EBITDA is a measure of a company’s operational performance.
Consequent to gross revenue decline primarily due to call connect charge revision, the EBITDA for the quarter declined by 18.5 per cent to Rs 1,223.3 crore as compared to Rs 1,501.6 crore in September quarter.