Indian telco Reliance Communications (RCOM) has booked revenues of INR53.01 billion (USD987.97 million) in the three months to end-December 2012, up 1.9% from the previous quarter. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were comparatively flat at INR16.53 billion, compared to INR16.38 billion three months earlier, whilst EBITDA margin dipped slightly to 31.2% from 31.5% over the same period. Net profits for RCOM’s fiscal Q3 were INR1.06 billion, an increase from INR1.02 billion in Q2 but a significant slump from INR1.62 billion in Q1.
2012 has seen RCOM undergo a concerted effort to remove inactive wireless subscribers, deactivating those that have not used their phones in two months. The strategy saw the carrier register net losses of 16.3 million users q-o-q, to 118.5 million at end-December. However, the loss of inactive users led to an increase in average revenue per user, which reached INR119 in Q3, from INR102 three months earlier. 3G subscriptions grew by 27.1% to 6.1 million, with data traffic climbing to 22.51 billion MB.