Have enough spectrum, hence didn't buy much at auctions: Vodafone Idea CTO Vodafone Idea said the telco did not purchase spectrum in quantities similar to rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel because it had "enough spectrum" and the telco has no intention of giving up spectrum in its non-priority circles. Danish Khan&Devina SenguptaETTelecomMarch 09, 2021, 21:06 IST

 

Vodafone Idea said the telco did not purchase spectrum in quantities similar to rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel because it had "enough spectrum" and the telco has no intention of giving up spectrum in its non-priority circles.

"Overall basis, our spectrum continues to be strong. So not purchasing too much (spectrum) does not mean that we do not have enough spectrum. Because we have enough (spectrum) so we have not purchased much," said Jagbir Singh, Chief Technology Officer at Vi.

The CTO's comments came on the back of the just concluded spectrum auctions where the least aggressive bidder in the 4G auction bought 11.8 MHz in five circles for Rs 1,993.4 crore.

In comparison Jio, picked up spectrum in 22 circles in the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands for Rs 57,123 crore. Rival Airtel acquired 355.45 MHz of spectrum across the 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands, besides the 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2300 MHz bands, for Rs 18,699 crore.

However, Vi remains unperturbed by competition and Singh added that the telco will continue to look for opportunities to improve its 4G network and make capex investments accordingly.

"We already covered one billion plus population on 4G today. We continue to grow that and we continue to keep putting more and more capacity-switching off 3G for 4G and serving the 2G customers the option of 4G and using the spectrum in the most efficient way...," Singh added.

Singh said that the telco has sufficient 4G capacity to serve 270 million subscribers, which will get enhanced as it continues to rapidly re-farm 3G spectrum to 4G.

In several markets, the telco has the largest sub-GHz spectrum holding, which will help it further as 2G spectrum is also getting re-farmed to 4G, he said.

The operator, which has 16 circles that are its focus point, has no intention of giving up any airwaves in the other six non priority circles as well.

"We are not taking out investment in others circles. The investments will happen proportionately. The investment will happen more in the 16 circles - part one, part two and part three, that is our priority, but we are not planning to take out any equipment from the part four circles or the category C circles," said Singh.