Vodafone Idea, which is starting an innovative and cost-effective business model from today following the merger integration between Idea Cellular and Vodafone India, has announced several facts about its business.
India’s largest telecom service provider will have more than 408 million subscribers. Airtel will become the second largest telecom brand in India in terms of wireless subscribers. It used to command top position for almost two decades.
“With consolidation shaping in to 3+1 player market structure, stability is likely to set within 6-12 months. Network quality and integrated content will be primary differentiator for telcos, with current tariffs being low,” said Prashant Singhal, Global Telecoms & Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Emerging Markets Leader, EY.
Telcos will continue to pursue adjacencies for serving a new customer segment or entering into new channels / platforms. India will see emergence of industry mashups between unlikely partners – Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) and other platform players.
Vodafone Idea will have number 1 Revenue Market Share position in 9 telecom circles out of 22 circles in India. India Revenue Market Share (AGR) of Vodafone Idea will be 32.2 percent.
Vodafone Idea leadership team
Balesh Sharma Chief Executive Officer
Akshaya Moondra Chief Financial Officer
Ambrish Jain Chief Operations Officer
Nick Gliddon Chief Enterprise Business Officer
Manish Dawar Chief Integration Officer
Sashi Shankar Chief Marketing Officer
Vishant Vora Chief Technology Officer
Suvamoy Roy Choudhury Chief Human Resource Officer
Kavita Nair Chief Digital Transformation Officer
Navanit Narayan Chief Strategy Officer
Rajesh Srivastava Chief Commercial Officer
P Balaji Chief Regulatory & Corporate Affairs Officer
Kumar Das Chief Legal Officer
It has broadband network of 340,000 sites for 3G and 4G customers targeting 840 million Indians. It will have the largest voice network with over 200,000 GSM sites to cover over 1.2 billion Indians or 92 percent population coverage.
It will have a distribution reach of 1.7 million retail outlets and 15,000 branded stores.
It will continue both Vodafone and Idea brands.
The following chart prepared by India Ratings indicates that Vodafone Idea will have a revenue share of 35.3 percent in 6-16 months after completing the merger. Airtel will have 35.5 percent revenue share during the period. Reliance Jio will have 21.9 percent revenue share.
Kumar Mangalam Birla is the chairman and Balesh Sharma is the CEO of Vodafone Idea.
“We are committed to offer both our retail and enterprise customers an excellent experience while fulfilling their evolving digital and connectivity needs via new products, services and solutions,” Balesh Sharma, CEO of Vodafone Idea, said.
Merger, which will effective from today, is expected to generate INR 140 billion annual synergy, including Opex synergies of INR 84 billion.
As at 30 June 2018, net debt of Vodafone Idea was INR 1092 billion.
Vodafone Idea has 1850 MHz of spectrum holding, over 200,000 GSM sites and ~235,000 kms of fibre — covering 92 percent of the population and reaching nearly 500,000 towns and villages.
Vodafone Idea will invest in developing infrastructure and introduce newer and smarter technologies – IoT, high speed and secure leased lines, digital wallets, MIMO and cloud services.
