Vodafone Idea Claims it has Launched 5G in this City of India: Updated

Reported by Tanay Singh Thakur January 9th, 2023 at 10:44 am

Update - Vi has deleted the concerned tweet and the development appears to be untrue.

Highlights

Vodafone Idea (Vi) has said that its 5G is now available in the city of Delhi.
Vi's customer care handle on Twitter said that its 5G is currently only available in the city of Delhi.
The telco's management had clearly said that they can't comment on a 5G launch timeline until and unless their funding issues are fixed.

Vodafone Idea

Update - Vi has deleted the concerned tweet, and the development appears to be untrue.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) has said that its 5G is now available in the city of Delhi. This can be a surprise to everyone as the telco has not announced this officially to the media or the customers. Vi's customer care handle on Twitter said that its 5G is currently only available in the city of Delhi. This can be a little hard to digest for everyone aware of the condition of Vi. The telco's management had clearly said that they can't comment on a 5G launch timeline until and unless their funding issues are fixed. Well, it looks like the telco has done a soft launch of 5G in Delhi.

The thing is, on a crowdsourced 5G map, Vi's 5G is not displaying in Delhi. Only Jio and Airtel's 5G can be seen. So it is very confusing, and it is not understandable if the 5G is available commercially or if Vi is doing beta testing in a silent manner. However, take a look at the tweet below from the Vi customer care handle.

Vodafone Idea Yet to Make Formal Announcements on 5G

If this is true, then it is a good thing for the telco's business and its investors. Vodafone Idea has not made any formal announcements regarding this, so if you are in Delhi, do check for 5G on your smartphone (if you have a 5G phone and you are a Vi customer) and ensure that your 5G settings are enabled.

The government is still holding on to convert the dues into an equity stake in Vi because the govt first wants the promoters to infuse additional capital into the company. Vi was seeking a fresh loan from the banks, but even that is unlikely to happen as the banks also want the promoters to pitch in with money first.

Vodafone Idea does have 5G spectrum that it can deploy to roll out 5G. But there haven't been any formal announcements on placing orders for 5G equipment to any of the network gear vendors such as Nokia or Ericsson.