Vodafone to prioritise 4G network growth over 5G; to spend Rs 55,000 crore
The telco on Friday announced that it will spend Rs 55,000 crore in the next three years in capex, and focus on 4G expansion.
NEW DELHI: Even as other telecom service providers have been rolling out 5G, Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), the country’s third-largest telecom operator, is still prioritising expanding its 4G networks.
The telco on Friday announced that it will spend Rs 55,000 crore in the next three years in capex, and focus on 4G expansion.
“The capex will be spent on — expansion of 4G coverage by rolling out more sites, capacity growth in 4G where sites have been deployed already. The third will be 5G where rollout must be started afresh and then there will be enterprise… Our topmost priority is expanding 4G coverage, which is the only reason why we continue to lose customers, that capex will be fairly accelerated. The rest will happen as traffic grows,” said Akshaya Moondra, Vodafone Idea CEO in its fourth quarter FY24 investor call.
The telco has been losing its subscribers to the competitors for not investing in its network and improving 4G services. As per TRAI data, Vi has lost 16.25 million subscribers in the first 11 months of FY24. However, it earlier said the subscriber depletion is not due to not launching its commercial 5G services but not having a proper 4G network.
Vi is the only private telco, other than Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio that is yet to come up with commercial 5G launches. The telco has only launched 5G networks in the country to meet Minimum Rollout Obligation to avoid penalties from the Department of Telecommunication (DoT). It has so far launched 5G in 4 circles – Maharashtra (Pune), Delhi, Chennai and Punjab to meet minimum rollout obligation. It will soon launch its 5G services in Bihar and Mumbai but not commercially.
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