Vodafone Idea recorded its strongest financials since it was formed more than three years ago, with ARPU growth in its fiscal Q4 (ending 31 March) driving revenue gains despite continued subscriber losses.

In a statement, MD and CEO Ravinder Takkar attributed the subscriber loss to higher tariffs, but noted the flip side of the increases in terms of its revenue gains.

Vodafone Idea’s mobile subscriber base fell by 24 million to 243.8 million, though it added 4 million LTE customers to end March with 118.1 million.

The operator’s net loss fell to INR65.6 billion ($849 million) from INR70.2 billion in fiscal Q4 2021. Total revenue increased 6.6 per cent to INR102.4 billion, as ARPU improved 15.9 per cent to INR124.

Average LTE data usage increased 7.6 per cent to 14.2GB.

Capex increased 15.2 per cent to INR12.1 billion, with full-year capex of INR44.9 billion compared with INR41.5 billion in fiscal 2021.

The operator shutdown about 32,000 3G sites during fiscal 2022 and added more than 35,000 4G sites to take total broadband count to around 355,000.