Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL), the third-largest telecom operator in India, has been losing customers throughout the years. There has been no miracle in any quarter, wherein the telco was even close to adding a new user. This raises concerns at the telco's fundamentals. The mobile customers are the core business of Vi. Without that, the telco will not be able to turn things around. For that, Vi is improving telecom infrastructure, and is also expanding coverage across India.
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Vodafone Idea has the lowest ARPU (average revenue per user) amongst the private telcos. In fact, Vi is the only operator whose ARPU is below Rs 200 in Q3 FY26. Both Airtel and Jio have surpassed the Rs 200 figure, while Airtel has even surpassed the Rs 250 figure. Vodafone Idea has to improve the ARPU, as that would also indicate a better topline revenue for the company. Along with that, the telco needs to arrest susbcriber loss, if not add new ones in the near future.
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Vi's subscribers are going to the mobile networks of Jio and Airtel. That has been hurting Vi for a long time. When it comes to postpaid mobile business, Vi is doing pretty well. However, with respect to the prepaid subscribers, the telco has not showed any fight against the competition. With things changing slowly in the finance department, we believe Vi has the potential to make a u-turn. The telco has now received government support, after directions from the Supreme Court (SC), and will also benefit from the tariff hikes that are expected in the near future. Vodafone Idea's active susbcriber base has dipped well below 200 million, and even from that, several million users are 2G users.
