NEW DELHI: Idea Cellular on Saturday reported a 3-fold rise in consolidated net loss at Rs 962.20 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2018.

The telecom firm had posted a net loss of Rs 327.70 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Total income slipped 22 per cent year-on-year to Rs 6,387.70 crore during the quarter under review. The figure stood at Rs 8,194.50 crore a year earlier.

For 2017-18, net loss jumped to Rs 4,168.20 crore from Rs 399.70 crore a year ago.

Idea’s Arpu dropped to Rs 105 from Rs 114, compared sequentially. In comparison its lowest ever. Jio reported Arpu of Rs 137 for the March quarter while that of Bharti Airtel is Rs 116.

This is for the sixth straight quarter that Idea Cellular ran up losses amid a cut-throat competition on the tariff front.

“During the year, the dual negative factors of (a) steep reduction in domestic and international MTC settlement rate and (b) unrelenting rate pressure on voice and mobile data services as high Arpu consumers migrate to lower priced ‘unlimited voice bundled data plans’ resulted in 20.50 per cent decline in Idea’s gross revenue in FY18,” Idea Cellular said in a release.

The company further updated that merger of Idea and Vodafone India is in its final leg of regulatory approvals and is expected to get completed in the first half of the ongoing calendar year.

The stock closed 0.66 per cent up at Rs 68.80 on Friday, whereas BSE Sensex rose 0.74 per cent to 34,969.70.