News
Funds to be spent on spectrum, 4G rollout, and the eventual deployment of 5G.
Vodafone this week gave its Indian business a 477 billion rupee (€6.4 billion) cash injection.
According to a Business Standard report on Friday, Vodafone India will use the funds to pay down debt, acquire more spectrum, and improve its mobile networks.
The investment comes at a significant moment in time for India’s mobile market.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is on the cusp of auctioning 2,200 MHz of spectrum across the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands.
Seven operators, Vodafone included, have applied to take part; the government hopes to raise at least INR5.44 trillion rupees (€71 billion) from the process, which is due to begin on 1 October.
Meanwhile, Reliance Jio Infocomm recently pledged to offer free voice calls and cheap mobile data to all-comers until 31 December, sparking a fresh price war and flooding rivals’ mobile networks with outbound voice traffic.
Jio’s disruptive strategy could result in a wave of consolidation sweeping across the country.
Two players, Reliance Communications and Aircel, are way ahead of the curve on that score, having last week struck a deal to combine their operations into a 50:50 joint venture. The merger will create a company with approximately 187.6 million mobile customers.
In Friday’s Business Standard report, Vodafone India CEO, Sunil Sood, said the capital injection reaffirms the company’s commitment to India, despite the tumultuous times it faces in the country.
"With this, we will focus on right-sizing our spectrum portfolio and deployment of 4G and 5G technology," he said, in the report.
