Vodafone Idea (Vi), a leading telecom company in India, has lost subscriber wireless subscriber market share in some of its key circles in 2022. The telco lost subscribers in 17 out of 22 circles in Jan 2023, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Vi has been losing subscribers in these circles for the last year. The telco's overall subscriber base has also declined pretty significantly, and the biggest blow is the reduction of active wireless users that directly contribute to the revenues.
We expect the telco's subscriber base to deplete further on the account of missing 5G rollout plans and no fundraising. Vi's incapacity to raise funds has restricted it from expanding the business and investing further to compete with rivals Jio and Airtel. In January 2023, Vi's subscriber market share was down to 21% from 23.2% in Jan 2022. The telco has seen its market share going down in key circles such as Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The telco has been losing subscribers for 22 consecutive months and has not been able to keep control over the subscriber churn rate.
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Even if Vi is able to raise funds in the short term, most of it will go towards the repayment of debt. The remaining might be focused on launching 5G as soon as possible. It is worth considering that Vi might have to return the spectrum to the government as there were 5G minimum rollout obligations set by the govt to ensure that the telcos rightly utilise the 5G spectrum.
The biggest blow to Vi would come in the form of losing premium customers to the other telcos. Premium or high-paying customers, which include the postpaid subscribers, might leave the telco's network in the short term to shift to Jio or Airtel as both companies are offering unlimited 5G data to the customers. Vi needs to focus on adding more 4G subscribers in the near future.
