Vodafone Idea loss narrows marginally in FY2018-19 Q4

India's largest telecom service provider had posted a loss of Rs 5,004.6 crore during the third quarter of 2018-19

New Delhi: Vodafone Idea posted a consolidated loss of Rs 4,881.9 crore as its loss narrowed marginally on the back of stabilising revenues in the fourth quarter of financial year 2018-19. India's largest telecom service provider had posted a loss of Rs 5,004.6 crore during the third quarter of 2018-19. Vodafone Idea had recorded a comprehensive loss of Rs 962.2 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

However, the year-on-year figure is not comparable because Idea Cellular merged with Vodafone Group on August 31, 2018.

Vodafone beat Reuters estimate

In the fourth quarter of the previous financial year, Vodafone Idea beat a Reuters analyst forecast which had pegged the net loss at Rs 4,946 crore.

The company posted a marginal quarter-on-quarter rise in revenue to Rs 11,775 crore in the March quarter of FY 2018-19. Vodafone Idea also beat the other two operators on this metric, as Bharti Airtel Ltd's India mobile business posted a revenue of Rs 10,632 crores, while Reliance Jio generated Rs 11,106 crore in operating revenue.

The March quarter results are only the second full-quarter results for Vodafone Idea, after the merger of Vodafone India with Idea Cellular last year.

Net loss comes despite high data consumption on network

The net loss came despite the fact that Vodafone Idea recorded higher data consumption on its network and signed up more 4G subscribers. Figures showed that its total data volumes grew by 9 percent to 2,947 billion megabytes compared to the third quarter of financial year 2018-19.