Vodafone Idea Q1 swings to loss as one-off gain from last quarter fades; ARPU rises to ₹195

Vodafone Idea swung back to a loss in the June quarter, as the impact of a massive exceptional gain booked in the previous quarter dropped out of the numbers. Operationally, however, the telecom company saw improvement across key metrics.

The company reported a net loss of ₹3,754 crore in Q1 FY27, compared with a profit of ₹51,970 crore in Q4 FY26. The previous quarter’s profit was largely skewed by a ₹57,491 crore exceptional gain, while Vodafone Idea reported an exceptional gain of ₹1,611 crore in the June quarter.

This makes the sequential bottom-line comparison less reflective of the company’s underlying operating performance.

Revenue rose 3.2% sequentially to ₹11,689 crore from ₹11,332 crore, while EBITDA increased 3% to ₹5,034 crore from ₹4,889 crore. The EBITDA margin was broadly stable at 43.07%, compared with 43.14% in the previous quarter.

On a year-on-year basis, revenue grew 6%, while EBITDA increased 9.1%.

ARPU rises as subscriber base adds users

Customer ARPU continued to improve, rising to ₹195 from ₹177 in Q4 FY26, supported primarily by customer upgrades. The company said ARPU grew 10.2% year-on-year.

Vodafone Idea's total subscriber base stood at 193.1 million, compared with 192.8 million in Q4 FY26, marking the first quarter of net subscriber addition since the merger.

The number of 4G/5G subscribers rose to 130.1 million from 127.4 million a year earlier, while data usage increased 27.9% year-on-year to 88.4 petabytes per day.

The company has expanded its 5G coverage to more than 200 cities across 17 key circles where it holds 5G spectrum. Its 4G population coverage reached 87% as of June 2026, with 39.4 million additional people brought under 4G coverage since Q1 FY26.

Vodafone Idea added more than 15,600 unique broadband towers over the last 12 months, taking the total to nearly 205,000.

Funding, capex remain key focus

The company said it has secured ₹6,400 crore in funding, including warrants and fund- and non-fund-based facilities, while discussions with lenders continue to close its overall funding plan.

Capex stood at ₹1,930 crore during the quarter, with the company having placed orders worth ₹9,000 crore against its three-year capex guidance of ₹45,000 crore.

Depreciation and amortisation expenses stood at ₹5,467 crore, while net finance costs were ₹4,925 crore. Excluding the impact of Ind AS 116, the figures were ₹3,862 crore and ₹3,701 crore, respectively.

Ahead of the earnings announcement, Vodafone Idea shares closed at ₹12.82 on the NSE, up 0.71%.