Vodafone Idea Investment : Debt-laden telecom company Vodafone Idea (VIL) has awarded contracts worth Rs 30,000 crore to Nokia, Ericsson, and Samsung for the supply of 4G and 5G network equipment. This contract is for three years. This is the largest deal awarded by any Indian telecom operator this year. The company had earlier announced capital expenditure of $6.6 billion or Rs 55,000 crore over three years. This deal is the first step in this direction.

Focus on 4G and 5G

The company said in a statement that Vodafone Idea has signed a major deal of about $ 3.6 billion (about Rs 30,000 crore) with Nokia, Ericsson, and Samsung for the supply of network equipment over three years. The statement said that the target of this capital expenditure program is to increase the scope of the 4G population from 1.03 billion to 1.2 billion, launch 5G service in major markets, and expand capacity in line with the growth of data. The statement said that expanding 4G service (coverage) to 1.2 billion Indians is the top priority of the company.

21 crore customers

VIL CEO Akshay Mundra said this is the beginning of a new era. "From now on, VIL will make an efficient transition to effectively participate in the industry's growth opportunities. Nokia and Ericsson have been our partners since the beginning and this is another milestone in that continued partnership," he said. "We are delighted to begin our new partnership with Samsung. We look forward to working closely with all our partners as we move into the 5G era," he said.

Vodafone Idea (VIL) was formed in August 2018 by the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. At that time it had a customer base of 40.8 crores and was the largest telecom operator. According to data from telecom regulator TRAI, VIL now has 21.5 crore mobile service subscribers. The company recently raised Rs 24,000 crore through equity sale.