Vodafone Idea has not been able to stop the subscriber loss for seven straight quarters now. This means the telco has been losing users for 21 months, which is just 3 months or one-quarter shy of two years. Vi has been losing out to the competition because of liquidity issues and limited investments in its networks. The telco has been unsuccessful in raising fresh funds, and that has caused a lot of problems. According to the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) monthly performance report for Dec 2022, Vi lost 2.47 million wireless users. The telco's total subscriber base now stands at 241.32 million users, out of which only 209.58 million users are active.
Vi is very close to witnessing its subscriber base dipping below the 200 million figure for the active subscriber base. That would be a new low for the telco if it can't manage to add subscribers soon. The industry is expecting Vi to lose subscribers further on account of the 5G launch delay. Airtel and Jio have been growing at the cost of Vi for several quarters now, and it is unlikely to stop now.
Read More - Vodafone Idea Continues its 20 Month-Long Subscriber Losing Streak
The telco has already converted the deferred interest dues into equity for the government. Now, everyone's waiting for Vi to announce successful fundraising. The Aditya Birla Group is already making moves to raise additional capital for Vi. There are also reports that the promoters of the telco would invest up to Rs 5000 crore in Vi.
But the unfortunate thing here would be that Vi would use most of the fresh funds to clear debt and dues. The money won't flow into fresh network investments for the telco. The telco could risk losing the spectrum it has bid for in the 2022 spectrum auction if it doesn't meet the minimum 5G rollout obligations that the government had set for the telcos who got spectrum for 5G.
