Vodafone Idea (Vi) went aggressive with its capex in FY25. The capex for the year stood at Rs 95.7 billion. Vi said that it wants to increase its capex quickly so that it can increase the 4G population coverage to 90% in India. In numbers, that's 1.2 billion people. But it is not just the population coverage that Vi is solving, the telco is also rolling out plenty of "infill sites" according to the compan's CEO Akshaya Moondra. This is helping the company in solving its network capacity problems across the country.
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"So what we are rolling out is a mix of coverage expansion and infill sites to improve the experience of the customers. Now I would say that compared to where we were a year ago, today, we've come to a point that wherever we had congestion in our network, that has been completely addressed," said Akhaya Moondra, CEO of Vi.
Due to financial issues, Vi couldn't invest in areas where there were capacity issues. But that was resolved after the equity fundraise. However, for the capex to continue, the company needs to raise funds via debt.
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"So wherever our customers were, while we were providing a good experience earlier also, but what has changed is that there were pockets where there was congestion where we could not invest earlier, we've addressed all that," added Moondra at the company's Q4 FY25 investors call.
Vodafone Idea has also said that by rolling out 5G, its 4G capacity is also getting freed. With time, the company's 4G networks will get freed further as more eligible users get to use its 5G. Vi has recently launched 5G in Bengaluru and four other cities. The telco plans to launch 5G in all the 17 priority circles by August 2025.
