NEW DEHLI: The Indian arm of British telecom major Vodafone reported 17.7 per cent rise in revenue, over 937 million pounds (£1.1b) in third quarter of 2014.
“We have achieved another quarter of improving revenue trends in most of our major markets. Growth in India has accelerated again, driven by data,” Vodafone Group Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said in a statement.
The company closed the quarter with customer base of over 178.7 million.
Vodafone India’s data revenue continued to grow strongly, with mobile internet revenue up 70 per cent. This was supported by 30 per cent growth in data customers to 59 million, of which 16.6 million were 3G, the statement said.
The company saw 40 per cent growth in average data usage per customer in India.
Voice rates per minute remained flat, with average minutes of use down 6.6 per cent.
“We continue to make good progress on Project Spring with 5,500 radio sites added in the quarter, (26,000 since the build commenced) taking our 3G outdoor coverage in targeted urban areas to 90 per cent,” the statement said.
Vodofone India which has applied for payment bank licence saw its mobile payment service closing the reported quarter with 337,000 active customers, generating 78,000 transactions per day, supported by over 85,000 agents.
Vodafone Group’s revenue increased 13.5 per cent to 10,881 million pound.
After India, Vodafone saw highest revenue growth of 17.3 per cent in Spain at 924 million pound during the reported quarter from 788 million pound posted in the same quarter a year ago.
