Vodafone Idea

Vodafone Idea Limited d/b/a Vi ( pronounced ) is an Indian telecom operator with its headquarters based in Mumbai and Gandhinagar. It is a pan-India integrated GSM operator offering 2G, 4G, 4G+,VoLTE, and VoWiFi services.

As of 30 November 2020, Vodafone Idea has a subscriber base of 289.9 million, making it third largest mobile telecommunications network in India and sixth largest mobile telecommunications network in the world.

On 31 August 2018, Vodafone India merged with Idea Cellular, to form a new entity named Vodafone Idea Limited. Vodafone currently holds a 45.1% stake in the combined entity and Aditya Birla Group holds a 26% stake. Kumar Mangalam Birla heads the merged company as the Chairman. Ravinder Takkar, Ex-CEO of Vodafone Romania is the current CEO of the company.

On 7 September 2020, Vodafone Idea unveiled its new brand identity, 'Vi' which involves the integration of the company's erstwhile separate brands 'Vodafone' and 'Idea' into one unified brand.

History
It was announced in March 2017 that Idea Cellular and Vodafone India would merge. The merger got approval from Department Of Telecommunications in July 2018. On 30 August 2018, National Company Law Tribunal gave the final nod to the Vodafone-Idea merger The merger was completed on 31 August 2018, and the newly merged entity was named Vodafone Idea Limited. The merger created the largest telecom company in India by subscribers and by revenue. Under the terms of the deal, the Vodafone Group holds a 45.2% stake in the combined entity, the Aditya Birla Group holds 26% and the remaining shares will be held by the public. Vodafone Idea lost a significant number of gross and active subscribers in the month of August 2020 after the merger.

Until 7 September 2020, Vodafone Idea Limited operated two separate brands:


 * Vodafone – a postpaid & Prepaid GSM service.
 * Idea – a prepaid GSM service, similar to Vodafone Prepaid.

Vodafone Idea also provides services including Mobile payments, IoT, enterprise offerings and entertainment, accessible via both digital channels as well as on-ground touch points, centres across the country. Vodafone Idea has a broadband network of 340,000 sites, distribution reach of 1.7 million retail outlets.

Spectrum frequency holding summary
Vodafone Idea Limited owns spectrum in 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz bands across the country.

This table contains Vodafone Idea (merged entity) radio frequency details because they had integrated their networks with each other and using one anchor network for both brands in all respective telecom circles. For example, Idea has started 4G services in Delhi and Kolkata telecom circle from May 2018 where the Vodafone is anchor network vice versa Vodafone has Started 4G services in Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Bihar & Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir telecom Circle's where Idea is Anchor network. .

Network consolidation
By March 2019, Vodafone Idea Limited announced its network consolidation across major circles, easing network issues faced by consumers and also enhancing its 4G coverage. Announcements of Network Consolidation were made as below

Enhanced Unified(2G,3G,4G) coverage details

Enhanced LTE(4G) coverage details Punjab network consolidation

Vodafone Idea Ltd., India’s leading telecom service provider announced the successful consolidation of its radio network integration in Punjab service area. With this, Punjab is among the first ten circles to complete integration in the world’s largest network integration exercise which is currently underway in India.

Rajasthan network consolidation Vodafone Idea Ltd., India’s leading telecom service provider announced the successful consolidation of its radio network integration in Rajasthan service area. With this, Rajasthan is amongst the first eleven circles to complete integration in the world’s largest network integration exercise which is currently underway in India.

According to the telecom regulator's data, the pan India wireless subscriber base of Vodafone Idea at the end of March 2019 stood at 394.8 million. The statement on network consolidation in Punjab, said 4G services have been enhanced for both Vodafone and Idea customers in cities including Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda, Moga, and Hoshiarpur. And in Rajasthan Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Kota, Ajmer, Udaipur among others.

Massive MIMO
Vodafone Idea deployed technologies such as massive MIMO, small cells, TDD sites to enhance coverage and network capacity in Mumbai and Delhi during March. As part of the modernisation exercise, the company deployed more than 5000 massive MIMO, small cells and TDD sites across Church gate, Prabhadevi, Pali hill, Lokhandwala, Versova, Andheri, Jogeshwari, Bandra and Dadar among other regions The company also deployed more than 4,000 Massive Mimo, small cells and TDD sites across the New Delhi and NCR region.

Turbo-net
Vodafone Idea has launched "TurboNet" 4G services in select cities of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Rest of Bengal (including Kolkata) circles. The launch of TurboNet 4G follows the consolidation of its radio network integration and the deployment of technologies such as Dynamic Spectrum Re-farming (DSR), Spectrum Re-farming, M-MIMO, L900, TDD, and Small Cells to further boost network capacity and coverage across large parts of the country.

Wifi Hotpsot
Vodafone idea Provides wifi hotpsot services in major cities Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore with 200 and more location's, it is currently available for only Vodafone brand customer's

YOU Broadband
YOU Broadband (wholly owned subsidiary of Vodafone Idea) offers fixed line broadband (FTTH) and voice services (VoIP) in major cities of India which includes Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Kakinada, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Navi Mumbai, Navsari, Powai, Pune, Rajkot, Surat, Thane, Vadodara, Valsad, Vapi, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.