Vodafone India Upgrades 2G Customers to 3G on Same Total Customer Base in Q1-FY2017. 3G data customer base increased 46% to 32.3m, the total data customer base increased only marginally (to 69.7m in 1Q17 from 66.8m in 1Q16). Vodafone 3G usage per subscriber was 875mb, which was up 11.5% y-y. Vodafone India data browsing revenue increased 22.3% y-y on 34.5% data volume growth. Data revenue growth should moderate further in FY 2017
The industry has been finding it difficult to add new data customers at current pricing. We expect recent data tariff cuts, initiatives on the content side, rising smartphone penetration and improving data network coverage to help companies bring in new data customers, which will be essential to drive up data volumes.
Vodafone India has said it will have a ?disciplined approach in the upcoming spectrum auction?. Vodafone India had 59k 3G sites as of 1Q17. Bharti and Idea had 93k and 50k 3G sites as of 4Q16
