Search Here

Vodafone India had already announced their plans to launch 4G in eight additional service regions by March 2017 which will expand their presence to seventeen service areas and will narrow the gap with market leader Bharti Airtel and new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm.

The country's second largest telecom operator by users, said it will expand its presence to the circles of Assam & North East, Maharashtra & Goa, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) and Uttar Pradesh (West), comprising 2,400 towns, by March 2017.

The telco, the Indian unit of UK's Vodafone group, has enhanced its 4G roll out plans, following the recent spectrum auction in which it emerged as the most aggressive bidder, bidding for spectrum worth '20,280 crore to acquire airwaves in the 4G bands of 1800 and 2500 Mhz and the 3G band of 2100 Mhz. It recently paid '10,140 crore as the upfront payment for the spectrum.

The operator, with a 19 per cent market share, already offers LTE service in nine regions, including Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. It aims to have more than one million 4G users by the end of the year, representing 20 per cent of its total subscriber base.

It will use the new spectrum to launch its SuperNet 4G services in 2,400 towns across the eight additional service areas by the end of this fiscal year, instead of 1,000 towns as announced earlier, said Sunil Sood, MD and CEO of Voadafone India.

Vodafone was the top bidder, spending about $3 billion to expand its 4G coverage to 17 regions to close the gap on rivals Bharti Airtel and 4G newcomer Reliance Jio, which both have 4G spectrum in all of the country's 22 service areas.

In September Vodafone Group injected more than $7 billion into its India subsidiary, reducing its debt by half and preparing it for the auction.