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Vodafone Idea to launch 5G services by March 2025 in 17 regions.
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Initial rollout to focus on Delhi and Mumbai.
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4G coverage to reach 90% of India’s population by June 2024.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) plans to launch its 5G services by March 2025, starting with Delhi and Mumbai, followed by 15 other regions. The company aims to strengthen its network to compete with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
As part of its revival plan, Vi has raised ₹24,000 crore through equity funding to improve its 4G network and support 5G launch. The company will focus on expanding 4G coverage to 90% of India’s population by June 2024, up from the current 77%. Vi’s Chief Technology Officer, Jagbir Singh, expressed confidence that the network upgrades will halt subscriber losses within a few months.
Vi is leveraging all available spectrum, including the 900 MHz band, to enhance coverage, especially in urban areas. The company has partnered with major tower providers and plans to increase cell towers using the 900 MHz spectrum from 55,000 to 150,000.
The report also suggests that Vi will phase out Chinese-origin vendors as it upgrades its infrastructure, instead opting for virtualized radio access network (vRAN) technology. Vi has partnered with Samsung for vRAN deployment in select regions, but its experiments with openRAN technology have been disappointing.
