More than 25 crore subscribers of Vodafone-Idea may face problems. The debt-ridden company may have to stop services from November. Vodafone Idea, which uses towers of a company named Indus Towers, has threatened to stop services if the loan is not repaid.
Indus Tower owes more than Rs 7,000 crore to Vodafone Idea. Bharti Airtel holds the highest 47.76% stake in this company and Vodafone Group holds 21.05%. Vodafone Idea also previously held an 11.5% stake in Indus Towers but had sold the stake two years ago when Indus Towers merged with Bharti Infratel.
VIL had a total debt of Rs 1,94,780 crore as of September 30, 2021. This debt increased to Rs 1,99,080 crore at the end of the April-June quarter, 2022.
Reliance Jio's dominance in the telecom sector is increasing. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), 15.4 lakh users of Vodafone-Idea company left the network in July. With this, the total number of subscribers of the company has come down to 25.51 crores.
At the same time, Jio has added 29.4 lakh, new users, to its network. With this, the number of users of the Jio network has increased to 41.59 crores. Bharti Airtel added 5.1 lakh, new users, in July. After which the number of Airtel subscribers increased to 36.34 crores.
According to TRAI, the market share of Reliance Jio has increased from 36% to 36.23% in the telecom market in July, while the market share of Bharti Airtel has increased from 31.63% to 31.66%. At the same time, the share of Vodafone-Idea has come down from 22.37 to 22.22% in comparison to June.
After the arrival of Reliance Jio, Birla's Idea and Vodafone merged into one. After this, four telecom companies remained prominent in the country regarding Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Vodafone Idea is continuously making losses and recently there was talk of its sinking. Vodafone Idea is the third largest telecom operator in the country.
