Purchased spectrum as needed; Ranked strong to be competitive in the market: VIL executives

Spectrum acquisition in recent auctions to fill some gaps in some sectors has put Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) on a “strong foothold” in the market, to ensure that all elements are now offering better services And are ready to make attractive offers to customers, the company’s senior official said.

Chief Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Officer of VIL, p. Balaji sought to “dispel the myth” that VIL would not have acquired large amounts of spectrum due to financial constraints.

He insisted that the company only bid for more and more radiation, as it needed to boost its services and coverage. He said that the company has enough spectrum to meet the requirement of customers and be competitive in the market. PTI.

“So we preferred to buy what we chose, because we had the largest spectrum pool among all private operators … Even now, after the auction, we are not the lowest on spectrum holdings among private operators,” he said. They said.

The company “stayed true” to its business strategy through the integration process (merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular), “third-party verification and confirmation by benchmark” on service quality, and incremental partnership partnerships that bring value to customers is focused. , Mr. Balaji countered.

“Whether it is capacity, partnership, coverage, customer experience, quality of service – all these elements are in place … We have an attractive offer for customers, and we will have our fair share of the market,” he said. VIL’s spectrum holding is 1,768.60 MHz after auction.

For Vodafone Idea, the spectrum purchased at auction (11.80 MHz) was worth ₹ 1,993.4 crore. Industry sources said that its deferred option pays ₹ 574.6 crore as immediate advance payment, and encies 103.50 crore for the frequencies available at a later date. Its payment is determined according to the schedule set by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Asked whether the company had enough money to pay in advance on the spectrum purchased in the recent auction, Mr. Balaji said, “Yes, we will make the advance payment required by the DoT”.

Mr. Balaji said, “11.8 MHz spectrum is what we need to meet our requirements.” On how VIL is seeing the 5G opportunity, Mr. Balaji said that the company has made significant investments in its network to make it 5G.

“We have already made the largest deployment of 5G-ready technologies, including core cloudification, and they help deliver better quality services to our customers,” he said.

VIL has applied to participate in the 5G trials and the government is expected to move forward.

“These tests will allow us and other players to ensure that specific India use cases are put to trial simultaneously and will also allow, for the future whenever 5G is deployed on a larger scale To get them at the vertical level, ”said Mr. Balaji. .