India’s third largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea is yet to launch 5G across the country. That’s why the company is having trouble getting new customers despite the decrease in old customers. Vi’s 4G subscriber base stood at 122 million (12.2 crore) in the third quarter of last fiscal. And in the third quarter of this year, the company’s total 4G users were 126 (12.6 crore) million. That means they have added only 4 million (4 million) 4G subscribers in 4 quarters. As a result, Vodafone Idea has fallen far behind Airtel and Jio in the race to add subscribers.
Airtel, meanwhile, reported a growth of 28.9 million (2.8 crore) 4G subscribers in the same quarter. Mukesh Ambani’s Jio has also made similar progress. However, Vodafone Idea’s business is not improving.
Note that Vodafone Idea has now discontinued 3G services and used the spectrum for 4G services, yet they still have to serve millions of 2G subscribers. And because of these millions of 2G subscribers, Vodafone Idea’s ARPU does not increase much.
According to the report, the company’s average revenue per user or ARPU has increased from Rs 135 to Rs 145 in the last 4 quarters. However, on paper Vodafone IDR is seeing a lot of revenue growth. But this revenue is very less and slower compared to Airtel and Jio.
Let it be known that Vodafone Idea has decided to raise Rs 45,000 crore soon. Aditya Birla Group, the promoter of Vodafone Idea, also said that they are going to help VI with additional capital. It is hoped that the telco will now be able to raise funds by taking loans and pay off the bank dues and get out of this predicament quickly.
