NEW DELHI: Vodafone announced on Friday that its subsidiary, Vodafone India, has acquired spectrum in all its key telecom circles in the latest spectrum auction for a total cost of INR 202.8bn. The FTSE 100 firm said the new spectrum “significantly enhances” the coverage, capacity and speed of Vodafone India’s 4G data services in its key circles, complementing existing high-quality 2G and 3G voice and data capabilities.
“Vodafone India acquired a total of 2 x 82.6 MHz FDD and 200 MHz TDD spectrum in the auction, providing high-capacity, multi-band 4G capability operating across the 1800, 2100 and 2500 MHz bands,” the company’s board confirmed.
It now has 17 circles with 4G capability in the country, covering 91% of the subsidiary’s total revenues and 94% of mobile data revenues. “[Our] investment totals INR 202.8bn, of which INR 101.4bn is payable upfront.“The spectrum acquired has a 20-year term.” Vodafone India has the largest voice and data traffic usage within the Vodafone group with more than 200 million customers. At 30 June, Vodafone India had 69.7 million data users, of which 32.3 million use 3G and 4G.
