MUMBAI: Idea Cellular posted a consolidated net loss and an on year revenue fall – both a first ever for India’s No. 3 telco since listing - as a brutal price war triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm hit both its voice and data business in the fiscal third quarter.For the quarter ended December 31, Idea posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 385.6 crore compared with a consolidated net profit of Rs 655.6 crore a year ago, and Rs 90 crore in the previous quarter. Revenue fell 3.79% to Rs 8662.7 crore, as as data and voice rates fell and its subscriber base shrank.“The Indian mobile industry witnessed an unprecedented disruption in the quarter of October to December 2016, primarily due to free voice & mobile data promotions by the new entrant in the sector,” said the firm in a statement.Jio, backed by India's richest person Mukesh Ambani, started commercial operations on September 5 with a free voice and data offer. Rivals including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India were forced to slash effective data rates and offer free voice calling on some plans across price segments to prevent subscribers from migrating. Telcos had started cutting tariffs even before Jio's launch, hurting key operational metrics such as average revenue per user (ARPU) and average revenue per minute (ARPM).The number three telco with 192 million subscribers said it was ‘forced to reduce’ its voice rates on sequential quarterly basis by 10.6% to 29.6 paisa per minute and drop its mobile data rates (ARMB) by 15.2% to 15.9 paisa per megabyte to retain existing mobile subscribers.Idea, for the first time, witnessed a decline of 5.5 million mobile data customers on sequential quarter basis because of free data promotions by Jio.The free offerings, it said, led to lower than normal volume elasticity and a fall in higher blended voice realisation was casued by the ‘tsunami’ of of minutes terminating on Idea’s network from Jio.Idea's ARPU for voice and data combined plunged by 9.24% at Rs 157 against Rs 173 of the previous quarter. However minutes of usage (MoU) increased by 4.61% sequentially. Voice and data ARPUs fell by 6.55% and 14.61%, respectively, quarter on quarter.Vodafone and the Aditya Birla group that owns Idea Cellular said on January 30 that they were in talks to form a joint venture with equal rights in an all-share deal, which would create a much stronger telco to take on the competitive threat posed by Reliance Jio Infocomm. The talks involve Vodafone buying fresh shares in Idea and deconsolidating its India unit.A Vodafone-Idea combination would have about 390 million users, exceeding current market leader Bharti Airtel’s 266 million. The combined entity will also be the largest by revenue market share.Data as a percentage of service revenue during the quarter stood at 20.2% compared with 21.9% in the previous quarter and 20.2% at the same time last year.A 123.1% jump in net finance and interest costs against same period last year, largely due to higher interest outgo on loans related to spectrum, also dragged down profit. Idea acquired airwaves in an auction last October and it now has 4G and 3G spectrum across the country.Net debt totaled Rs 49,138.2 crore compared with Rs 36,401.3 crore in the previous quarter. EBITDA margin shrunk to 25% in the quarter ending December against 30.5% in the last quarter.In the third quarter, Idea Cellular's capex spend was Rs 2000 crore same as previous quarter. The company said it partially funded by cash profit of Rs. 1230 crore.Idea Cellular this week raised Rs 1,000 crore by selling corporate bonds In the last. Prior to this, in the last two months, the telco raised Rs 5,500 crore via similar route.The telco needs funds to expand its 4G network at a time industry revenue and profit have been hit by the entry of Jio. Market leader Bharti Airtel said profit plunged 55% in the October-December quarter. The new operator impacted Vodafone India too which posted a 1.9% drop in service revenue in the quarter ended December 2016.Idea currently offers 4G services in 12 circles and plans to expand that to 20 by March. The mobile phone carrier trails market leader Airtel and Jio, which offer 4G across India.The telco reiterated that a new firm ‘Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Limited’ (ABIPBL) has been formed to setup the payments bank services with ABNL and Idea as shareholders which is likely to commercially launch its services by first half of calendar year 2017 after regulatory approvals from RBI, ABIPBL