Shares of Vodafone Idea (Vi) are expected to trade actively on Thursday, January 29, as the debt-ridden telecom company plans to invest ₹45,000 crore over the next three years to return to a growth trajectory.
During the company’s earnings call for the third quarter of the current fiscal year (Q3 FY26), Vodafone Idea (Vi) CEO Abhijit Kishore said the company will expand network coverage in 17 out of 22 telecom circles to bring it at par with competitors and try to convert 2G sites in the five circles in the next three years.
“We are going to commit ₹45,000 crore of investment over the next three years in this business, and this is in addition to the ₹18,000 crore that we have already invested over the last six quarters,” Kishore said.
Kishore said that the money will be invested in network expansion through an extremely aggressive rollout of the network, in line with the company’s strategy of targeting 17 priority markets, 5 in the rest of the market, and a focus on 5G.
“We, over the next 30 months, will cover all the markets in the country, which are both urban and rural. Here, I’m defining ‘urban’ as towns with a population of 20,000 plus with 5G. I also need to bridge the gap on 4G.
“Over the next 12 to 24 months, all the 17 priority markets, which contribute to 99.2% of my revenue, will have absolute parity with the competition,” Kishore said.
The CEO said the company is targeting to triple its operating income, or EBITDA, in the next three years.
What KM Birla said
Earlier in the day, Aditya Birla Group Chairman KM Birla, in his annual post, said that post the Supreme Court judgement bringing clarity in the adjusted gross revenue liability matter and relief from the government, Vi will look beyond survival, with a focus on sustainable growth.
A healthy, competitive telecom industry is essential to India’s digital future. India deserves three private telecom players. India deserves a successful Vodafone Idea. And this is, once again, an idea whose time has come, Birla said.
Kishore said the company’s satcom service is “still a little far in the future”, but the company’s teams are deeply engaged in ensuring regulatory clearances are attained for the services.
“We have a tie-up with AST, which is providing the service. Our sense is it’s still 18 months to 2 years away, but we are absolutely committed to getting that into the non-terrestrial network, and that will help us to bring the network and the experience alive in the areas which we will not be presenting and which are difficult areas,” Kishore said.
Vodafone Idea Q3 FY26 Earnings
Vodafone Idea (VIL) on Tuesday reported a narrowing of its consolidated net loss to ₹5,286 crore for Q3 FY26, mainly due to customer service upgrades.
The company’s subscriber base declined by 3.4% year-on-year to 19.29 crore from 19.98 crore, although the telco saw an increase in postpaid and 4G/5G subscribers.
The postpaid subscriber base increased by 14.2% to 2.88 crore from 2.52 crore a year ago. The 4G and 5G subscriber base increased to 12.85 crore from 12.6 crore on a YoY basis.
VIL said its user revenue, or ARPU (average revenue per user), rose 7.3% year-on-year to ₹186 in the reported quarter from ₹173 in the quarter ended December 2024, mainly due to customer upgrades.
Consolidated revenue from operations remained almost flat at ₹11,323 crore during the latest third quarter compared to ₹11,117 crore a year ago.