Vodafone Idea Ltd., India’s largest telco in terms of number of subscribers, plans to expand its presence in urban India through the Vodafone brand, while positioning the Idea brand for ‘rural Bharat’.
Balesh Sharma, chief executive officer, Vodafone Idea Ltd., said, “Today, we have two of the most loved brands in the country. Vodafone and Idea are part of Vodafone Idea Ltd. Vodafone brand is two shades more urban, while Idea brand is a shade more small town, rural and mass market focussed. These two complementary, strong brands together give us the firepower to take on competitors across markets and geographies.”
In August, the Indian unit of global telco giant Vodafone Plc. was merged with Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Idea Cellular to create India’s largest telco with a subscriber base of 420 million.
Post merger, Vodafone Idea plans to invest ₹27,000 crore over the next two fiscals, and aims to achieve savings of ₹14,000 crore via the merger synergies by FY21, two years ahead of the expected time.
Talking about the competition in the sector, Mr. Sharma said that the market was “unsustainable” due to aggressive competition and cautioned that this was detrimental to the government’s flagship initiatives like Digital India.
Vodafone Idea reported the lowest ARPU of ₹88 compared to peers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio at ₹101 ₹131.7, respectively, in the second quarter ended September 30, 2018.
The merged entity will have to pay a spectrum fee of ₹3,000 crore to the government by March 31, 2019, and another ₹12,000 crore for the next fiscal.
Vodafone Idea shares on the BSE declined 7.43% to close at ₹41.1 in a weak Mumbai market on Thursday, valuing the company at ₹35,902 crore.
