Reliance Communications has posted a 14.9 per cent fall in consolidated net profit of ₹171 crore for the Q3 ending December 31. The net profits saw a drop mainly due to loss of 2G mobile service licences in five circles – West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and the north-east service areas in 2015.
The company’s revenue was down 3 per cent year on year at Rs 5,298 crore, while operating profit slipped 2.6 per cent at Rs 1,803 crore. It recorded a total data traffic of 103.2 billion MB, up 6% QoQ and 35% YoY while data usage per subscriber was 905 MB, up 1.2% QoQ. The total data customer base has grown 4.3% QoQ to 38.8 million including 23.1 million 3G customers in Q3. Average revenue per user (ARPU) rose 2.9 per cent to ₹142 on a QoQ basis. Its revenues per minute rose 0.9 per cent to 45.2 paise, while minutes of usage fell 2 per cent to 100.4 billion minutes.
Earlier this month, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCOM) entered into a strategic partnership for the sale of 800 MHz spectrum in 9 Circles by RCOM to Reliance Jio, and for sharing of spectrum in 800 MHz band across 17 Circles.