Uninor suffers Rs 134 crore operating loss in Q1

NEW DELHI: Uninor, the Indian unit of Norway’s Telenor, reported an operating loss of Rs 134 crore (159 million Norwegian Krone) for the quarter ended March, narrower than the previous quarter, on strong subscriber additions, though its voice business came under pressure. The carrier, which operates in six of India’s 22 service areas, had posted an operating loss of Rs 234 crore in the previous quarter ended December 31, while recording an operating profit a year earlier ofRs 1,561 crore, mainly on account of a refund of a previously paid licence fee.

Revenue in the just ended quarter increased 19% on year to over Rs 1,170 crore (1,383 million Norwegian Krone). The firm further reported 40% improvement in its EBITDA over the last year. “Uninor had a strong first quarter with 19% growth in revenues and the subscription base being 26% higher than the same quarter last year,” Vivek Sood, CEO, of Uninor said in a statement on Wednesday. Uninor has over 45.5 million users.

However, average revenue per user – a key financial parameter – fell by over 7% on year to Rs 98 in the first quarter compared to same quarter last year, and by nearly 3% sequentially. “ARPU decline was primarily driven by lower voice consumption and the impact from reduced mobile termination rate, partly compensated by increased data usage,” Telenor said in a separate statement.