Vodafone the second largest operator by subscriber base has announced today that it has extended its services to two new districts in Arunachal Pradesh, bringing its total of serviced districts to 11 out of the total 18 districts of the state.
"Vodafone India, one of India’s leading telecom service providers, has announced the launch of its network in Daporijo in Upper Subansiri District, and Aalong and Basar in West Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh. With this launch, Vodafone becomes the first private telecom operator to expand its footprint in the region," Vodafone said in a statement.
With this expansion, Vodafone would now cover around 385 towns and villages, and more than 27 per cent of the population in the state, it said. Vodafone had earlier announced its network expansion to Zero Point, Bomdila, Rupa and Tenga in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.
In Assam and North East circle, Vodafone operates in seven states spanning across more than 18,540 towns and villages diverse in the demographic landscape, catering to an equally diverse populace in terms of culture and language. Vodafone has a subscriber-base of 4.5 million in Assam and North East.
Vodafone is concentrating on increasing its footprint in the rural areas of 'C' category circles. Currently, BSNL is the only operator with robust coverage in rural areas of these circles. In the recently concluded auction all 900MHz in North East circle was won by Airtel and Vodafone has nearly 7MHz of spectrum in 1800MHz band in this circle which means it needs to invest more in its passive infrastructure to achieve good coverage.
