Mr. Akshaya Moondra, CFO and Mr. Arpit Gupta, IR said that Idea Cellular has the balance sheet strength and sufficient headroom (in terms of leverage) to retain at least 4.4MHz of 900Mhz spectrum in the upcoming spectrum auctions. The company highlighted that it is well positioned to benefit from 1) strong data volume growth, given operators other than the 'top 3 operators' lack the ability and/or willingness to invest in network 2) better cost efficiencies driven by scale economies and 3) reduced competitive intensity driving voice RPM and operating leverage.
SmartPhones / mobile offers the only gateway for mass-market customers to access the internet in India (~92% of Indians that have access to internet is via mobile). Management commented that data is EBITDA margin accretive given 1) no interconnect costs and 2) most of data related costs flow below EBITDA. Data is likely to be a key growth driver for the company
