Vodafone Group invests in Rs 47,700 crore equity ahead of spectrum auctions
8 years ago Admin 0
Vodafone India, the second-largest operator with 200 million users said that it has received an equity infusion of Rs 47,700 crore from Vodafone Group in the first half of the current fiscal. The carrier claimed that the equity infusion via foreign direct investment (FDI) is largest ever FDI infusion in the country.
“This equity infusion of Rs 47,700 crore, which we believe is the largest ever in India, will enable Vodafone India to continue its investments in spectrum and expansion of networks across various technology layers delivering the best of experience to our hundreds of million customers,” said Sunil Sood, MD and CEO, Vodafone India.
Vodafone India holds 22.5% of revenue market share with over half of the users are located in rural areas. India’s biggest-ever spectrum auction that will start from Oct. 1 Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications, Aircel and Tata Teleservices are participating.
“With our commitment to support the Digital India vision, we are building one of the most modern and scalable telecom networks to deliver connectivity and the Vodafone SuperNet? experience to all, for both voice and data,” Sood said.
With Reliance Jio entry the move is expected to shake up dynamics in the market, where telco prepares to bid aggressively for spectrum auctions to increase 4G spectrum holdings.
“We have successfully increased our revenue market share by 0.6% in the first quarter of current fiscal. experience to our hundreds of million customers,” he said.
Vodafone has a total of 302MHz spectrum, may spend as much as $2 billion on acquiring spectrum. It has 4G spectrum in nine of the country’s 22 circles, and lag behind Jio and market leader Bharti Airtel’s pan-India holdings.
