Attending Vodafone Idea Limited Q1 FY 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I am now handing the conference over to Mr. Akshaya Moondra, CEO of Vodafone Idea. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Moondra.
Thank you, Rindu. A very warm welcome to all participants to this earnings call. Last week, our Board of Directors adopted the announcement result for the quarter ending June 30, 2025. All the results-related documents are available on our website, and I hope you had a chance to go through the same. Let me provide key highlights for the quarter, progress on our investment, and its positive impact, along with the updates on our key strategic initiatives. Before I move on to company-specific performance, let me share some thoughts on the Indian telecom market and growth opportunities. First, I marked 10 years of the Digital India Mission, a decade of transformative growth and empowerment. The aim was simple: to use technology to make life easier for every Indian.
India's journey under the Digital India Mission has been significantly fueled by the telecom sector, which has laid the foundation on digital infrastructure across the length and breadth of the country. As a telecom company, we have a firsthand view of how widespread wireless broadband coverage has empowered millions, bringing seamless internet access to remote villages, enabling e-governance, and enhancing digital literacy. Additionally, robust spectrum investments, expanding fiber connectivity, and multiple other factors have together transformed India into one of the world's largest and fastest-growing digital economies. According to the State of India's Digital Economy Report 2024, released by ICRIER, India now ranks third in the world for digitalization of the economy. By 2030, India's digital economy is projected to contribute nearly one-fifth of the overall country's economy.
The telecom industry is not only connecting people but also serving as a backbone for national priorities like digital health, online education, fintech inclusion, and smart governance. From farmers using mobile apps to get crop updates to students in tier-three towns attending virtual classrooms, telecom-led broadband access is powering an inclusive digital and societal transformation. With collaborative frameworks and sustained innovation, the telecom industry stands as a critical enabler of Digital India, ensuring every citizen, business, and institution can participate in and benefit from the country's digital revolution. The Digital India story is, at its core, a story of connectivity, and we are proud to be the backbone that supports this national mission. Let me now talk about our strategic initiatives. Our first strategic initiative is our focused investment approach.
I am glad to inform that post-launch of 5G services in Mumbai in March 2025, this quarter has witnessed the expansion of our 5G services. Our 5G services are now available in 22 cities across 13 circles. Further expansion to additional key cities across all our 17 priority circles is planned by September 2025. We continue to invest towards expanding our high-speed broadband network coverage and capacity by adding new 4G sites and upgrading our core and transmission network. In Q1 FY2026, we invested INR 24.4 billion in CapEx. We added over 4,800 new unique 4G towers during the quarter, reinforcing our focus to deliver superior connectivity. Parallely, our network densification efforts have also yielded results with a ratio of 2.7x 4G sites per 4G location as of June 2025, highest since merger, and improved from 2.3x 4G sites per 4G location as of March 2024.
We increased our 4G population coverage by 7% to 84% as of June 2025, compared to 77% as of March 2024. During the same period, our 4G data capacity expanded by 36%, driving a 24% improvement in 4G speeds. As of June 2025, these total broadband sites counted at 515,200. Additionally, we have also deployed 13,100 massive MIMO sites and more than 12,300 small cells. With these initial investments, which have resulted in increased coverage and capacity, and as a result offering better customer experience, the subscriber decline was restricted to just 0.5 million during the quarter. That is 90% lower compared to about 5 million each in Q2 and Q3 of last financial year, marking our strongest performance since merger. We are confident that these trends will improve further as the investment continues. Further, the progressive launch of 5G services will further support the subscriber traction.
This CapEx and network expansion will enable the company to participate in the industry growth. With a goal to bridge the digital divide in remote, rural, and underserved regions, we announced a strategic collaboration with AST SpaceMobile to deliver satellite-based mobile broadband to all smartphones. This partnership will enable us to extend our coverage reach in conjunction with AST SpaceMobile's space-based cellular system, delivering seamless voice and data access without the need for separate specialized devices. Moving on to market initiatives, our commitment is sparse in providing more than nearly seamless connectivity. We are focused on enriching the digital lifestyles of our consumers through experiences that go further than the usual voice and data services. Our portfolio of digital-first offerings for prepaid users gained momentum with a Nonstop Hero plan offering unlimited data 24/7, now active in India.
You would recall that we had an e-guarantee program for 4G and 5G subscribers, which provides 130 GB of additional data over the year, with 10 GB delivered every 28 days for 13 cycles. During this quarter, we expanded it to unlimited voice users as well through 24 days of extra validity distributed over 12 months, with two-day extra validity credited on every unlimited voice recharge at INR 199. With these propositions, we won an award for the best use of influencers on Instagram at Apex for the promotion of Vi Jeta Guarantee and Superhero and Nonstop Hero Karat. Our postpaid customers, catering to the growing demand for best-in-class OTT experience, we have added a Netflix subscription as a fixed recurring benefit to Vi Max Family Plan. Priced at just INR 71, the Vi Max Family Plan includes two connections, a primary and a secondary.
In this plan, we offer the highest data quota in the industry with a massive 120 GB monthly data pool shared between the two members. This is the industry's largest data offering in this price range. Further, we are the only operator that offers unlimited night data and data rollover up to 400 GB, ensuring a worry-free data experience. On the back of these plans, its data traffic has grown by 10.4% year-on-year at the overall level and 11.2% at the per 4G subscriber level. The consumer ARPU has shown a year-on-year increase of 14.9%, reaching INR 177. The number of 4G subscribers has also reached 127.4 million during the quarter. We have been working on constantly improving our international roaming pack attractiveness for the end consumer. Our roaming packs are now available in 144 countries worldwide versus 129 earlier.
I'm very pleased to share that we are the only operator offering truly unlimited data and calls, and with 11 countries added to this category, the total count with unlimited data and calls has increased to 40 countries. To further enrich the travel experience, we have partnered with Blue Ribbon Bags, a U.S.-based lost baggage concierge service, to offer baggage protection for our postpaid international roaming customers. This initiative aims to enhance the international travel experience by addressing key concerns and providing a comprehensive and worry-free international travel experience for our customers. At Vodafone Idea, we are leveraging advanced AI and ML models to proactively detect spam and fraud patterns, safeguarding our customers and ensuring a safer calling experience for them. From January to June this year, our AI engine flagged over 450 million SMSes as spam, protecting users before any harm could reach them.
In an industry-first, we have become the first operator to launch a feature that displays the country of origin for incoming international calls. This feature further enhances our users' safety by empowering them to make informed choices before accepting calls. This is also a protection against cyber fraud, which we all know is on the rise. We've created excellence also on industry recognition. We've run a number of campaigns aimed at reuniting pilgrims with their loved ones during the Mahakam 2025, one of the prestigious dance lines for the cultural engagement. Now moving on to our business services, our ability to serve the enterprise segment is founded on strong, reliable relationships with our clients and the extensive resources of the Vodafone Group.
We are transitioning from a conventional telecom operator to a comprehensive tech group, broadening our scope beyond connectivity to deliver sophisticated solutions like hybrid SD-WAN, CIFT, IoT, industrial IoT, and cloud services. We are committed to maintaining this momentum by diversifying our offerings and partnering with strategic allies, ensuring that our services are not only highly relevant but also prepared for the future and impactful for our enterprise clients. One of the major highlights this quarter is the launch of Vi Business CCaaS, our AI-powered cloud-based contact center as a service. Designed to unify customer interactions across channels, Vi Business CCaaS brings intelligence and scalability to customer engagement, enabling businesses to deliver consistent and smart conversations in real time. Our partnerships with Genus Power Infrastructure and AST SpaceMobile underscore our commitment to best-in-class technology.
In cloud and collaboration, the rollout of Google Workspace with professional services strengthens our proposition for modern workplace solutions. While Google Workspace provides tools like Gmail, Drive, Documents, and Meet, our professional services ensure smooth deployment, data migration, user adoption, and post-deployment support. This holistic offering enables enterprises to fully capitalize on their cloud journey and enhance ROI from their collaboration suite. We also advance our capabilities in enterprise networking through a strategic managed services agreement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise. This collaboration enhances our ability to deliver comprehensive managed wide-area LAN and security solutions, positioning us strongly to support digital-first enterprises across various environments. Our IoT business witnessed landmark progress. We secured a 10-year contract with Genus Power Infrastructure for 5 million smart meters, and we are one of the largest smart meter IoT wins. This is a strong endorsement of our execution capability in critical infrastructure projects.
We also enhanced our eSIM strategies through a partnership with Bharti Airtel, enabling dual SIM functionality to support resilient, future-ready enterprise deployments. Additionally, our new device management system will enable real-time control and right-cycle management across IoT assets, boosting operational efficiency for our clients. On MSME Day, June 27, 2025, we launched the fourth edition of MSME Ready for Next 2025. This is India's largest digital advisory platform for MSMEs. We also released an MSME Growth Insights Study 2025, which revealed that 76% of small businesses plan to increase investments in cybersecurity, along with growing interest in cloud automation and digital payment solutions. These efforts support our long-standing commitment to empowering India's MSMEs through digital enablement. The company's leadership in the B2B domain was acknowledged with honors at the ET20s Award and E4M Digital Influencer Awards, recognizing its outstanding impact in the MSME and enterprise segments.
We remain committed to accelerating innovation, delivering exceptional value to our customers, and driving growth across the enterprise ecosystem. The next strategic initiative is driving partnerships and enhancing digital revenue streams. As emphasized in the earlier call, our aspiration is to become a fully integrated digital services provider with a distinct goal of enhancing digital engagement with consumers and generating revenue through targeted streams. Our articulated strategy regarding this initiative has been to achieve it through strategic partnerships and to offer the majority of these services via the Vi App. Our own platform, our own OTT platform, Vi Movies & TV, is accessible across all major operating systems on smartphones, smart TVs, laptops, PCs, and tablets. Vi Movies & TV offers access to 20+ OTTs through various subscription options to our prepaid and postpaid users.
The OTTs available on Vi Movies & TV include ZEE5, JioHotStar, Sony LIV, Lionsgate, FanCode, Eros Now, Hoichoi, Malayalam Manorama, Namma Flix, PlayFlix, and more, and over 350 live TV channels. We have recently also introduced MX Player with Vi Movies & TV to bring to our consumers a wide range of content MX Player has in its repertoire. The Vi Movies & TV plans are also bundled with loads of data for allowing our consumers to watch the content without worrying about their data getting over. Vi Movies & TV has grown well in terms of adoption and consumption in the last 15 months since its launch, and our focus is to continue to scale it, ingest more varied content, and build distinct features to make it a destination of choice for more and more consumers.
As you would know, apart from this, Vi App is a multi-utility app that offers not just end-to-end telco account management but also allows consumers to play over 100 games, participate in eSports tournaments, pay utility bills, shop across categories like entertainment, food, shopping, and travel. Our constant endeavor is to elevate the experience that the Vi App offers, and I'm happy to share that we have just rolled out Vi Finance on Vi App, where we are now offering personal loans, fixed deposits, and credit cards to our users. For loans, we have entered into a partnership with Aditya Birla Capital. We have a roadmap to use their expertise and our customer intelligence to expand our offering and offer unmatched value to our consumers.
Customers will also be able to make fixed deposits on Vi App, choosing from a range of options between banks and NBFCs, and get very attractive interest rates on their savings. I urge you to experience the Vi App, particularly the newly added Vi Finance, and share your feedback. I would like to reiterate that we will continue to have a sharp and disproportionate focus to build the digital ecosystem with our partners, enabling a differentiated experience for Vi users. This will help us deliver enhanced customer value as well as provide incremental monetization opportunities. Moving on to CapEx deployment plans, with Q1 CapEx, we have now expanded our 4G population coverage to 84%, and with the ongoing CapEx, we plan to increase it further as well as expand the 5G coverage to all 17 circles.
We remain actively engaged with our lenders for tying up their funding towards the execution of our long-term network expansion plan. The recent conversion of spectrum options using equity and the credit rating upgrade have supported these discussions to move forward. Before I conclude my remarks, this is my final earnings call for Vodafone Idea. I would like to take a moment to sincerely thank all of you, our investors, analysts, and broader financial community. My first earnings call with all of you was in July 2008, when I joined as the CFO at Idea Cellular. Post that, I have had the pleasure of interacting with you on each of these quarterly calls, except one quarter in 2014 when I was away for my course at Harvard. It has been a true privilege to lead this company and to share our journey with such a thoughtful and engaged group.
Over the years, your insights, questions, and even your challenges have not only kept us sharp but have also played a meaningful role in shaping our strategic direction. I've learned a great deal from our interactions, from one-on-one meetings to these quarterly calls, and I deeply appreciate the trust, the patience, and accountability you've brought to the table. I'm incredibly proud of what we've accomplished as a team, given the headwinds of the last few years, and I'm at least confident in the strength of our leadership team, our strategy, and our commitment to delivering long-term value. Talking about Avijit Kishore, who takes over as the CEO from tomorrow, he has been the Chief Operating Officer of the company since November 2021. In this role, he has created a steady and focused impact on the business and driven operational rigor.
Prior to his current role, he was the Chief Enterprise Business Officer, where he strengthened the B2B side of Vi's business, and in two prior stints, he led our critical markets of Gujarat and Kerala. Avijit has had three decades of experience in the telecom industry. He is also currently serving as the Chairperson of the Cellular Operators Association of India and the India Mobile Congress. I'm sure Vodafone Idea will flourish under his able leadership. Avijit is here on this call with us. Let me hand over to him for sharing his initial thoughts.
Good afternoon, everybody. I seek this opportunity to thank ourselves. Over the last few years, despite several challenges, Vodafone Idea has remained resilient, competed effectively, and made significant progress under his leadership. My appointment in the new role as CEO of Vodafone Idea comes at an exciting time as Vi is on its turnaround journey. As we move forward, our focus remains on driving revenue growth through subscriber addition and effortless customer experience with intense market execution. I look forward to interacting with the analysts and enrich the community going forward. As I hand over to Murthy, who will share the financial highlights for the quarter.
Thanks for that sharing, Avijit. A warm welcome to each of you. The revenue for the quarter was INR 110.2 billion, registering a growth of 4.9% on a year-on-year basis. The cash EBITDA of INR 21.8 billion improved by 3.7% on a year-on-year basis.
The reported EBITDA for the quarter was INR 46.1 billion as compared to INR 42 billion in quarter one FY2025. Depreciation and amortization expenses and net finance costs for the quarter were INR 54.7 billion and INR 57.5 billion, respectively. Excluding the impact of Ind AS 116, the depreciation and amortization expense and net finance costs for the quarter were INR 39.3 billion and INR 46.9 billion, respectively. During the previous quarter, pursuant to the conversion of spectrum use in DoT by the Government of India, the company had derecognized an amount of INR 369.5 billion from its debt repayment obligation. The finance cost for the quarter versus the previous quarter has mainly reduced due to the bulk. The target spend for the quarter was INR 24.4 billion.
The company continues to invest in networks and will accelerate the broader capital plans that we have been mentioning previously of INR 550 to 550 billion over three years since FY2025, once we tie up the bank debt. In this regard, we remain engaged with the lenders to secure debt financing. The debt from banks has further reduced to INR 19.3 billion as of June 30, 2025. With this, I hand over the call back to Raju and open the floor to questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Vivekanand S with Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I have two questions. The first one is on churn. It seems that your churn levels have moderated from the times that we saw the tariff hike resulting in some subscribers migrating to BSNL. Have these customers returned to the network? How should we think about churn here on because you have now expanded your population coverage for broadband to almost 84%? I want you to just discuss the interplay between population coverage expansion and churn. If possible, if you can provide some color on the population coverage in your relevant 17 circles for 4G, that would be great. That's question one. The second question is on the CapEx number. Cumulatively, since the SBO, you have done CapEx of around INR 120 billion.
You are saying that you are on track to do the INR 500 to 550 billion CapEx predicated on funding. There seems to be some slippage in the CapEx trajectory. Last quarter, you had said some CapEx under implementation of INR 50 to 60 billion. It seems that you have done much less than that CapEx under implementation. With the current balance sheet and visibility, how far will you go on CapEx? That's my second question. Thank you.
Okay. Thanks, Vivek. I think on your first question, which is relating to churn and how do we see this going forward, and you had the specific question on BSNL. It is difficult to say that whether the customers who had gone have come back and all that. There is definitely the immediate fallout of the price increase where we saw a significant increase, and all operators saw that, a significant increase in loss of subscribers to BSNL that has turned around. If we look at the 14-quartile data, which is clearly available, that has been churning around, I think, since January this year. That is behind us as far as the current trends are concerned. In terms of our own churn levels, they have been coming down spontaneously. Sometimes it is difficult to draw an exact correlation between population coverage and the churn.
As you can see, in Q2, of course, Q2 was impacted by price increase. If you look at Q3 of last financial year, our subscriber loss was in the ballpark of 5 million, which reduced to 1.6 million in the previous quarter, and which has reduced to 0.5 million in the last reported quarter. As our population coverage has been increasing, we have seen a continuous improvement in the subscriber networks, as is visible. I would say that some of the other interventions, which have still not played out completely, are that when the 4G coverage was largely done, I would say in the previous quarter, the 5G rollout has started happening. From March 25, a few cities were rolled out in Q1, but a large part of the new cities have been rolled out in June and July onward.
That impact is still to kind of reflect in the overall improvement in subscriber metrics. I think that is another point. As we continue to invest in all these things, it also takes some time to register. As you're aware, we've also come with several attractive pricing propositions, particularly the Nonstop Hero, which is becoming quite popular. Some of these Nonstop Hero have actually been launched in the current quarter, that is Q2. Those also have to play out. With all these interventions in place, we are quite confident that our subscriber metrics will continue to improve. All factors of population coverage, 5G rollout, product interventions, better customer service, which is also a focus area, all these things combined together are letting the subscriber metrics move in the right direction, and that will continue. If I answered your first question, then I'll move on to the second one.
Yeah. Just one follow-up here. You are saying that the churn is also due to your network not having 5G coverage. Is that, did I get that correct? You are now saying that with 5G rollout in more and more cities, churn will come down further. Is that a factor?
Yeah. You see, it's like this. As we have turned in the path, generally speaking, we have not seen a difference in the trend of subscribers who are churning out between people who have 5G devices or not. However, once you start having a particular offering in our network, definitely it creates a positive feedback or positive sense in the customers who are wanting to use 5G or who are particularly looking for 5G. While we have said earlier that it did not have a significant impact on churn, as you make these investments, it gives you two benefits. One is, of course, people who want to use 5G technology who have 5G devices. They benefit from it, and they are able to use it in many. It has been rolled out in most of the major cities in many circles. That is one.
Secondly, as we roll out 5G, it is also a means to create more capacity, and particularly in congested areas, it kind of, while brings in the 5G experience, it also improves the experience on 4G because that gets decongested as traffic transfers to 5G. I think it is difficult to pin down the churn performance to a single factor. As I said, it's the combination of all three factors, majorly the population coverage, the availability of 5G, the pricing interventions. Of course, there's a lot of execution in the marketplace, which is there. We often find differentials in our different markets. As we see more and more and we get into more detail, sometimes these also turn out to be execution differences, or what are we doing well in some areas? How can we replicate it in other areas? As I said, our investments are happening.
We are moving in the right direction, and the subscriber metrics will continue to improve. Moving on to your second question about CapEx. In the last quarter, we had indicated that we are looking at about INR 50 to 60 billion of CapEx in H1. I think I've also mentioned that a large part of it should come in Q1, but the 5G rollout has taken a little while, and most of this will be done by this quarter. That range of INR 50 to 60 billion, which we had indicated for H1, we should reach that target by September 2025. We are in line with that target. That is pretty much the CapEx that we can incur out of new funding. As you are aware, currently, we also generate some positive cash from operations post-servicing of this, and we will have some capability to incur CapEx beyond that.
The larger quantum of CapEx, which is a part of our plan, will require new funding to come, for which I think we have mentioned that we are engaged with the banks and also looking at some other sources of funding so that we can maintain the continuity of our CapEx. However, I must add here that with whatever CapEx we have incurred and what we will incur by the end of September, we have got to a point where our 4G coverage is very competitive where we are present in terms of capacity utilization, experience, speeds. They are all very good. 5G also, wherever we roll out, we have a very competitive offering in terms of speeds or performance.
While we look at a significant round of next CapEx coming from new funding, it is very clear that what we have already invested puts us in a much better competitive position. We'll continue to leverage that as we move forward.
Okay. Actually, that's very helpful. As far as CapEx is concerned, you are saying that the CapEx that is coming out of fundraising in the SBO and other events last year, that will be done by September. Beyond September, you will only spend what you are earning as cash EBITDA, so around INR 21 billion or INR 22 billion per quarter. Is that the right way to infer your CapEx trajectory?
Broadly, yes. There are other pluses and minuses, but yeah, directionally, yes.
Okay, thank you.
Thanks, Ravik.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sanjay Shen with ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thanks, actually, for taking the question and the question about the next journey. I welcome Avijit. My question first is around the 5G subs. I know it's too early for us to call, but can you help us understand how much % of our customers in our coverage area have the 5G phone and how many of them have opted for the subscription? I think 5G is only beyond 2GB per day plan. Can you help us with the 5G?
Okay. Firstly, I think I will not be able to give you a number of 5G devices per sales, but all that I can say is that since the launch of Mumbai in March 25, based on some data which is reported, we have actually seen an increase in our device market share as far as 5G is concerned. I think that is one important point to be understood in the overall thing. Once we have launched 5G, the 5G device share is increasing, and our device market share has increased on our network. That is number one. Number two is that we see that wherever we have launched 5G, we have seen 60% to 70% of subscribers who have got a 5G device actually adopting 5G and starting to use it. That is the other thing.
I think as soon as we have launched, then it takes about two months or a little plus minus here and there where we get to the 60% to 70%. Of course, our effort is to see how do we get to that balance, 35% or 30% to get to use 5G. As you would know, some people are happy with 4G. 5G sometimes results in a higher battery drain. They don't want to use it. Sometimes it is also driven by the consumer choice. The third point is you said that it is, I think we are offering this on a 299 plan as an introductory offer, which is 1GB, but this is a 1.5GB. It is not linked to the 2GB plan. Our introductory offers on 5G with unlimited data are on the 299 plan, which is 1.5GB per day.
Of course, in Mumbai, we have withdrawn that introductory offer. All these are meant to be introductory offers. When we find that the introductory offer has served its purpose, currently, we have withdrawn in Mumbai, and ultimately, that's the plan for the remaining markets. Our introductory offer is at a price point of INR 299 with 1.5GB per day.
Thank you. Second question on the.
I'm sorry about the fishes. Sorry, I forgot to mention that.
Thank you, sir.
Second question on the subscriber again. Do we have significantly restricted our total subscriber loss? If I look at the 4G addition, which should have ideally resulted in a better 4G addition, there appears to be a lag between our total subscriber loss and the acceleration on 4G. How are we going to fix it, and what is causing this lag effect?
I would not describe it as a lag effect. If you see that, again, after the price increase, we had lost 4G subscribers, which were otherwise increasing till then. In the last quarter, we added about, in the last quarter, meaning Q4, we added about 0.4 million 4G subscribers. This quarter, we have added 1 million 4G subscribers despite losing 0.5 million on an overall basis. Definitely, the 4G trends are better than the overall subscriber trends. They are moving better than that, and they will continue to do better than that. Yes, post the price increase, there was a period of decline, and from which, over the last two quarters, we have seen a positive trend and an improving positive trend. I won't call it that there's a lag or anything there.
No, because I think when we were losing 3 million, that is three tariff increases, we were still able to add a million customers. Now we are losing just 0.5 million, but our additional run rate remains still a million. I can understand the tariff increase and the consolidation impact had in the last few quarters. I'm just looking at the data before we got into the tariff increase. I think that trend should have accelerated, right?
I think acceleration we will have to see largely with reference to what have been the most recent trends. I think whether when we were losing 3 million subscribers, the 4G was increasing by 1 million, I cannot specifically answer that question. I think we have to look at these as two independent trends, not necessarily correlated with each other. Most important is that are we adding 4G subscribers, which we are, and is that trend improving?
Got it. I'll follow up again on the total subscriber base. We have broadly added, we went from 183,000 sites to now 197. How has been the trend where we have added the capacity in the subscriber versus where we have not added to understand the benefit? Where the network is coming, how is the growth planning out here? Are we getting that industry growth rate of 2% in the areas where we are now equal to the U.S. in terms of 4G coverage?
Generally, the answer to that question is yes. As I mentioned a little while ago, when we look at our different markets, there are differentials in performances. There are markets where we have seen that as we have rolled out new sites, there is a rub-off effect on the existing network and sites. While the revenue is growing on the new sites, it is also growing equally well on the existing sites, which is what really should the result be all the time, and which is what our expectation is. We have seen some markets where we are seeing that where we have rolled out new sites, we are seeing an improved performance. Where we have not made investments in particular geographies within a market, those are not showing the kind of growth that some other markets are showing.
I think we are currently at the point of time where we are getting into details of seeing what is happening in each market, taking corrective action. That is how, as we look at, because ultimately, there's a significant investment which has been made. We kind of monitor the result of that investment. The results may not be uniform across. Some places, the invested area and the areas in the existing sites both are showing an equal increase in metrics and revenues, which is what we want it to be. Some markets or some geographies, startup markets, that is not true. That is what we are constantly working to improve upon. That's the point I was making that we have constantly seen improving subscriber metrics.
As we kind of look into these details and take actions in the marketplace in terms of what do we need to do in terms of distribution, what do we do in terms of focusing on different areas where we find there is a gap, we are constantly improving performances across. With this round of CapEx, I think 5G will make a significant difference. The recent pricing interventions will make a significant difference. Along with that, we also have to see the differential performances markets take, learning from there, and then take action so that the collective benefit of investment in a market is felt across the market.
That's clear. Now touching upon the CapEx, we are here mentioning that we are looking at going to a total site of 215,000 to 220,000. We are at 197,000. By the end of September, where are we looking at? Are we looking at reaching to 205,000? Beyond that, I think we will need capital to keep up the pace. Will that be a right assumption to look into it?
In this quarter, what we are primarily doing is deploying 5G and redeploying some of the equipment because we have to scratch some of the sites where it is more an enhancement of capacity on existing sites. In this quarter, we are not expecting any significant change in the number of sites. It will not be anywhere close to the figure you are mentioning. Any significant increase in the new sites would depend largely on the new funding. As I said, we will have some cash generation which will be invested, so we will see some increase in this quarter. However, in Q3 and Q4, as we kind of deploy some of our internal cash generation for CapEx, we will see some growth. To get to a figure of 205,000 or 215,000, we will need new funding, not bank funding necessarily, new funding.
Got it. One question on the balance sheet side. I was just looking at the change in the net debt from Q4 to Q1. It's broadly gone up by INR 7,000 crore. We generated broadly INR 2,200 crore of EBITDA and another other income of INR 150 crore. We have spent broadly the same number in the CapEx. What explains this increase in the net debt by INR 7,000 crore? If you can help us understand the bridge. I know there is some interest accrued but not paid, but that doesn't completely explain the remaining part.
Sanjay, this is G.V.A.S. Murthy here. If I can just understand your question again, you're talking about net debt. Now, net debt is an increase that we're talking about, which is basically growth and less of taxing equivalent. My understanding is that it has gone up by, I would say, $3 billion, right?
The growth rate is gone up by, I'm talking about net debt. Your cost has also depleted. Your total net debt has gone up by INR 6,900 crore something.
Sanjay, if I may, rather than looking at net debt, let's look at three parts. One is the bank debt, which has reduced from INR 22.3 billion to INR 19 billion.
Yeah, it's correct. It's correct.
That is one part. The government, really speaking, there is no change. There was a conversion at which time some adjustments were done in terms of accrued interest and all. There is no cash implication of the government debt that exists today. The spectrum payments will all come in this quarter. There is no payment in Q1 as such. There is the cash, which is largely remaining out of the SBO funding. There is a time differential between when the CapEx is booked and when the payout happens. It may not always match the cash flow. I think the easier way to understand this is that you look at the government debt as nothing having changed really very much from the last quarter. Bank debt reduced by INR 400 crore or INR 4 billion. SBO funds largely being used for CapEx.
There could be a time difference between when CapEx is recorded and when the cash outflow happens. Just look at it three parts independently. Otherwise, trying to combine the three then makes sure that requires a more offline discussion for clarity.
Yeah. Just to add to this, the spectrum on the easier debt remains the same as last quarter. The external debt has gone down. The cash and cash equivalent has gone down on account of UCS capital. Therefore, you know, we take a net debt figure. That movement is slightly there. That's just it.
That's true. That's clear. Thanks, thanks, actually, for all those explanations and Murthy. Just reflect for the coming quarters.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Hemant Kothari with Hanru. Please go ahead.
All right. Yes, a good afternoon. Just wanted to ask on the postpaid growth. What will the broad percentage be during the MQM and mobile customer on the additional side? On the second question, what will be the AGR and default spectrum liability at the quarter end? Please go.
Let me address the postpaid question, and the AGR will be answered by Murthy. I think as far as the postpaid subscribers are concerned, we have a growth of about 1.1 million quarter on quarter. A large part of this comes from the MQM, which is a fast-growing stream. It also has positive additions on the consumer postpaid side. I will not be able to give you the breakup here.
Okay. On the spectrum payouts FY2026, it is roughly about.
Is asking the breakup of the outstanding for the payment. What was your question? Could you repeat the second question?
Sir, I was asking the outstanding June quarter AGR and default spectrum liability growth.
Sure.
The outstanding as of end of June is about INR 100 billion for default payment towards spectrum and about INR 75 billion for the AGR, totaling up to about INR 195 billion.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hassan, for your presentation.
Thanks. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Mithun Jani with GM Enterprises. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Moondra, for the leadership during the webinar. Congratulations to Mr. Murthy for the post. My question is about the government shares. It's more of a clarity-based one. If the company performs well, would it be feasible and viable for the company to repurchase shares by shifting the government shares somewhere in the future?
Firstly, technically, a company cannot purchase its stakes. It is basically, if at all that was to be thought of, it is promoters who have to buy a stake. A company cannot buy back its stake unless you get into a complicated process of reduction of capital. In reality, today we are focused on investing. Whatever capital is available to the company, the focus is not in trying to do anything with the government holding, which is there. The focus will be in using any funding and cash generation for investments, which will give the best returns for the business.
Okay. Because that seems like the deals are not being paid, it doesn't come up, right? Where down the line is the cash flow somewhere? I don't see time of the sense for the company to have just object for the deals, which have been exceeding equity pool, and that's fine.
I think that's not a relevant question for today or future.
Okay. Fine. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you on another split of future and the world.
Thank you. Thanks, Mithul.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Virgalant S. with Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity. Actually, congratulations on the completion of a great term and career in Vodafone Idea. Thanks for your service. Avijit, congratulations and wish you the very best for your assignment. My question, Avijit, is to you. You have worked in the Vodafone Group. You have also handled enterprise roles in the past. From your vantage point, when you look at the company now and the enterprise business in India, how are you thinking about the ability of Vodafone Idea to leverage on the market opportunity considering the capital constraints that the company faces? It's unlikely that the constraints are going to go away or disappear anytime soon. I would want to understand thoughts on the enterprise side and what your plans would be.
Ravit, before Avijit answers the question, let me just thank you for your wishes, and then I'll leave it to Avijit to answer this question, which is specifically asked.
Yeah. Thanks, Ravit, for your wishes. You know, the way I'll kind of keep it brief and obviously get into detail probably from the next quarter onwards, but I clearly see an opportunity on the enterprise question since you're asking it specific to the enterprise. As a case, of course, we have moved in the journey from being a telco to a telco with the addition of many value-added services, which is more relevant for the enterprise versus the cloud services. I see a pretty bullish scenario as far as the enterprise is concerned. Also, for the fact that Vodafone as a group has pretty deep entrenchment as far as the enterprise business is concerned, including the IoT part of the business. I think it's just a pretty good space to be in. Vodafone Idea will be absolutely participating in the.
Okay. Do you have any kind of target in mind from a revenue contribution or, say, revenue opportunity perspective in terms of, let's say, revenue pool available to Vodafone Idea for the next three years, five years, and areas that you're targeting? You enlisted many things in past presentations linked to public-private cloud, IoT, and other forms of communication like SD-WAN. Is there a target opportunity set in mind given the kind of investment restrictions or constraints you may have?
I'll probably try and explain that in the next one, Ravit. It's too early for me to kind of get into the details at this point in time. We'll definitely pick it up in the next one and then pursue that.
Ravit, if I can give a kind of broad reply to your question, one is I think many of these businesses are in maintenance stages. They are all coming up from a very small base. I think it is not necessarily that there are internal targets, but nothing that I can talk about right now. One thing which we see, which is growing very rapidly right now in the IoT space, is the metering deals, which I alluded to. You will see that us and also all operators are adding significant additions to the IoT space, largely driven. One is, of course, these wash machines, which is growing, but this is a kind of a bit of a fluctuating business. Automatic metering is something which is picking up. Also, I think as far as enterprise business is concerned, there is a direct correlation between investment and return sometimes.
If you find a good opportunity, I think it is not so much a question of capital constraints, which will hinder in any way the growth of the enterprise business, really. Enterprise investments can be easily made if there's a clear opportunity. I think enterprise business, we are very focused, and it is not constrained by gas fee, which tends to be much smaller compared to the larger mobility business. Opportunities in these new revenue streams are quite large. Some of they pick up at different times, as I can say that the automatic metering is picking up at real waves speed. Others are also picking up, and I think you get to hear about it as we progress.
Great. Appreciate the comment. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Pushjotri with SSPC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Congratulations, actually, and all the best for your next move. I have two questions. Firstly, on DLR subscriber base, which is down 2.6 million quarter on quarter, while that was down 1.2 million in the last quarter. What's explaining an acceleration on DLR subscriber being dropping? As a % also, that number has been trending down. Can you share any color on this? Second question is on the funding. Can you discuss the progress and key milestones to watch? What are the bottlenecks based on your discussion with banks or any color which you can share with it? Thank you.
If you stay on the DLR subscribers, I will not be able to give you a very specific reply. All that I can say is that generally, Q1 is a seasonally weak quarter. If you look at historical data from a quarter-on-quarter variance, Q1 is actually a weaker performance compared to Q4, generally across the industry. In that context, I think the DLR trend may appear to be in a direction. Sometimes there is also this challenge about migrant labor moving from one part of the country to another that creates some of these distortions. I don't have a specific reply, but I would say that the reported subscribers which we are showing, which are showing a consistent trend of reduction of subscriber loss from 5 million to 1.6 million to 0.5 million, that is representative of the business performance as that should be taken into account.
In terms of funding, I think, as we have said multiple times, we are engaged with banks. Those discussions have, again, started moving forward once the conversion happened and the credit rating upgrade happened. What the banks are currently looking for is some clarity on the AGR front. That is where we are engaged with the government. Given that the government has made the conversion, they are today the largest stakeholder in the company, whether as an equity holder or any views which are owed to any external party, we are quite confident that there will be a solution to AGR. That is there. Nevertheless, given the fact that we are keen on maintaining a continuity of our CapEx, which has been going on since last year, we are looking at non-banking sources of funding also.
Not the full amount of INR 25,000 crores that we have talked about, but a lesser amount so that we can continue with the CapEx cycle. Banking, things are progressing, but they may take a little while, and we are trying to look at other sources of funding which could be available in a shorter timeframe.
In a scenario of delaying any kind of new funding from the bank, the two-edge network CapEx could be slower. In terms of resolution of, you know, or let's say the banks or whatever clarity they want on the AGR dues, you feel that by March 2026, those should be resolved.
I think in the past, we have always seen that government have been supportive. You look at 2019, deferment of spectrum installments, 2021 reform package, 2023 conversion of government dues to equity, 2025 again conversion of government dues to equity. Generally, these actions have happened. Generally, they happen closer to the time when it is essentially needed. Our request to the government has been that, let us resolve this earlier than before the deadline of March so that banks get clarity and we can proceed with bank funding. That is our continuing effort today also.
Got it. Thank you, Ashwin.
Thanks, please.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Akshaya Moondra for closing comments.
Thanks, Ravit. As discussed during the call, our investments have led to improved coverage and enhanced customer experience, resulting in best subscriber metrics since merger. 5G services have been expanded to 22 cities and 13 circles, and more are on the way. Our data usage has increased significantly by 9.4% quarter on fourth quarter, showing increased engagement with our subscribers. With all these developments, we are confident of continuing improvement in subscriber metrics, which has been demonstrated for the last two quarters. We are also working towards tying up debt funding for the execution of our long-term network expansion plan. Thank you all once again for your support and engagement throughout my tenure. I look forward to watching the company's continued success. This ends on the other side of the call. Thank you very much.
Thank you. On behalf of Vodafone Idea Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now defer to the.