--- title: "Vodafone Idea’s loss widened to ₹5,975 crore as revenue per user rose 9.7% to ₹198" summary: "Vodafone Idea’s results for July to September: why the loss widened, what customers pay, the towers it added, and the ₹1,57,532 crore it owes the government." url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/vodafone-idea-loss-5975-crore-arpu-198 format: Note desk: "Markets & the AI economy" region: India published: 2026-11-14 facts_checked: 2026-11-14 author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal) tags: ["Vodafone Idea results","Vodafone Idea Q2 results","Vodafone Idea ARPU","Vodafone Idea AGR dues","Vodafone Idea","Vi","ARPU","AGR dues","spectrum dues","Government of India stake","Vodafone Group","telecom India","4G towers","NSE"] cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/vodafone-idea-loss-5975-crore-arpu-198.png --- # Vodafone Idea’s loss widened to ₹5,975 crore as revenue per user rose 9.7% to ₹198 *Vodafone Idea’s results for July to September: why the loss widened, what customers pay, the towers it added, and the ₹1,57,532 crore it owes the government.* Note · Markets & the AI economy · By TechBag · Published 2026-11-14 · Facts checked 2026-11-14 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/vodafone-idea-loss-5975-crore-arpu-198 Vodafone Idea (Vi), the mobile operator whose largest shareholder is the Government of India with 49.00%, ahead of Vodafone Group’s 16.07% and the Aditya Birla Group’s 9.57%, lost ₹5,975 crore in July–September, against ₹3,754 crore in April–June and ₹5,524 crore a year earlier.[1] Its customers paid more: average revenue per user (ARPU) rose 9.7% in a year to ₹198 a month.[1] The jump from April–June came mostly from the value of Vi’s own shares, not from the business. Excluding one-off items the loss was ₹5,513 crore, against ₹5,365 crore in April–June and ₹5,562 crore a year earlier.[1] ₹5,975 cr loss for July–September; ₹5,513 crore before one-off items NSE filing ₹198 revenue per customer per month, up 9.7% from ₹180 NSE filing ₹3,946 cr capital spending in the quarter; about 9,000 towers added NSE filing −₹44,298 cr total equity at 30 September, from −₹35,758 crore in March NSE filing ## Why the loss moved: shares Vodafone set aside The quarterly report puts the wider loss down to the “adverse impact of mark-to-market of treasury assets”.[1] The results statement says what those assets are. Under the Implementation Agreement with the former owners of Vodafone India, amended on 31 December 2025, Vodafone Group entities earmarked 328 crore Vi shares for five years to secure part of a settlement Vi is owed; whatever those shares are sold for goes to Vi. Vi books them at market value. At 30 September they were worth ₹3,972 crore, and the fall in the quarter was a ₹462 crore loss, booked as an exceptional item. In April–June the same line was a ₹1,816 crore gain.[2] That one line swung by ₹2,278 crore between the two quarters, more than the ₹2,221 crore by which the loss widened; April–June also carried a ₹205 crore provision for regulatory matters, and the loss before one-off items rose ₹148 crore.[1][2] Revenue was ₹11,884 crore, up 6.2% in a year, and EBITDA ₹4,981 crore. ARPU rose, Vi says, “primarily” on customer upgrades. It counts 194.4 million subscribers, 1.3 million more than in June but fewer than the 196.7 million of a year earlier, and 131.0 million of them on 4G or 5G, up from 127.8 million.[1] Fewer customers, each paying more. How Indian mobile prices got here, from a free launch to three tariff rises, is in the Journal’s [reading of Jio’s pricing](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/penetration-pricing-plan-it). ## What the business earns, and what it owes **Figure: Vi earned ₹4,981 crore before depreciation and interest; those two cost it ₹10,480 crore** *Vodafone Idea consolidated profit and loss, ₹ crore, July–September 2026* Revenue ₹11,884 Operating costs ₹6,903 EBITDA ₹4,981 Depreciation and amortisation ₹5,505 Net finance costs ₹4,975 Loss on earmarked shares ₹462 Loss for the quarter ₹5,975 | | Value (₹) | | --- | --- | | Revenue | 11,884 | | Operating costs | 6,903 | | EBITDA | 4,981 | | Depreciation and amortisation | 5,505 | | Net finance costs | 4,975 | | Loss on earmarked shares | 462 | | Loss for the quarter | 5,975 | Source: Vodafone Idea, quarterly report and unaudited consolidated results, NSE filings of 12 November 2026 · as of 12 November 2026 · Net finance costs are after ₹376 crore of other income; tax of ₹14 crore is not shown. That gap is the cost of the network and the spectrum. Vi’s bank debt is small: ₹943 crore of bank debt at 30 September, against ₹5,470 crore of cash and bank balances.[1] Counting debentures and other lenders, the group owes ₹4,543 crore. Its large debt is to the government: deferred payments of ₹1,31,268 crore for spectrum and ₹26,264 crore for adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, with ₹9,216 crore of instalments due by September 2027.[2] The AGR figure is what remains after the year to March 2026 booked a ₹58,116 crore reduction in those dues as an exceptional item; that is why January–March, with ₹57,491 crore of exceptional items, showed a ₹51,970 crore profit.[1][2] Vi says it has secured over ₹10,500 crore of funding in the half year, including warrants and bank facilities, and placed over ₹13,200 crore of equipment orders against its three-year capex plan. It added nearly 9,000 broadband towers in the quarter, the most in nine quarters, for 213,616 in all.[1] The shares closed at ₹12.57 on Friday 13 November, down 3.1% on the day after the results.[3] What to watch: whether cash EBITDA, ₹2,498 crore this quarter, keeps pace with the government instalments and the tower build. How we did this Figures as of 14 November 2026, 7:30pm IST Loss, revenue, EBITDA, ARPU, subscribers, towers and capex are from the quarterly report, which restates the unaudited consolidated results; ARPU is customer ARPU excluding machine-to-machine connections, monthly, and the 9.7% is Vi’s own rounding (₹180 to ₹198 rounds to 10%). The report’s “treasury assets” are, in note 3 of the results, the earmarked “settlement assets”. Government dues, the ₹4,543 crore of borrowings and the equity figure are from note 2 of the consolidated results. Net finance costs are finance costs of ₹5,351 crore less other income of ₹376 crore, as the quarterly report presents them. Our arithmetic: the ₹2,278 crore swing (₹1,816 crore gain to ₹462 crore loss), the ₹2,221 crore widening, the ₹148 crore rise before one-off items, and ₹10,480 crore (depreciation plus net finance costs). The share price is Yahoo Finance’s close for IDEA on NSE, not a primary source. Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece. Sources 1. [Vodafone Idea, quarterly report for the second quarter and half year ended 30 September 2026 (NSE)](https://nsearchives.nseindia.in/corporate/IDEA_12112026185212_SEIntimationQuarterlyReport12112026signed.pdf) — 12 November 2026 2. [Vodafone Idea, outcome of board meeting: unaudited standalone and consolidated financial results for the quarter and half year ended 30 September 2026, with limited review reports (NSE)](https://nsearchives.nseindia.in/corporate/IDEA_12112026184039_SEIntimationFinancialResults12112026.pdf) — 12 November 2026 3. [Yahoo Finance, IDEA.NS daily closing prices, 12 and 13 November 2026 (quote data, not a primary source)](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IDEA.NS/history/) — 13 November 2026 **Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns when companies buy through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view. **Read this next:** [Jio was free for 208 days, then raised prices 3 times: budget software for year two](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/penetration-pricing-plan-it) — How India's mobile prices got here: Jio was free for 208 days, then raised prices three times. Go deeper on TechBag - [India’s spam complaints rose 41% in a quarter](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/trai-spam-complaints-41-percent-disconnections-71) — the regulator’s other quarter for the same operators - [Zaggle’s revenue rose 34% and its profit fell 30%](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/zaggle-revenue-34-percent-cashback-66-profit-falls) — another listed Indian company’s quarter, read line by line