Regulatory Decisions Have Worked Against Every Telecom Companies, Except Jio: Vodafone

British telecom major Vodafone on February 25, 2019, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, purported that regulatory outcomes in India in the last two years were against every telecom operator except Reliance Jio, reported Business Today. In India, Vodafone operates as Vodafone Idea Ltd, after it merged with Aditya Birla Group’s Idea in August, last year. Nick Read, Vodafone Chief Executive Officer underscored that its business in India has gone through a tough time, but now the company is in a good position to play with plans to invest in network and monetisation of assets.

Nick while talking to the reporters expressed his views on the Indian regulatory and policy regime. He said that the company has only asked for a level playing field in terms of regulations. He said, “Over the last two years, we had many regulatory outcomes that were against everyone in the market except Jio”.

He further added that the current level of mobile services rates are the lowest in India and is not sustainable. “This can’t be a sustainable position going forward and therefore, at some point, pricing needs to return to a more normalized level. That requires all players to ultimately sit back and say what is a healthy industry level,” said Read.

Comparing the company with other players in the market he said that all of them are haemorrhaging cash as the pricing in India is the lowest in the world. He also mentioned that the Indian consumer in an average is consuming 12 gigabits (GB) at price points which is hard to find elsewhere. He also asserted that the price of mobile services rate will rise but will not jump. He assured that it will be a moderate rise.

Vodafone Idea has raised minimum tariff to Rs 35, proliferating the company’s average revenue per user by 1.5 % on a quarterly basis to Rs 89. The total debt of Vodafone Idea was registered at Rs 1,23,660 crore by the end of December 31, 2018. Read further said at this point heavy discounting is going on. Talking about the implementation of 5G network, he said the company provides fantastic 4G service in the market and said that it is too early for 5G in terms of handset preparation. He also that if we provide 5G now, we will not be using high amounts of handsets.

Also Read: The Institutes Of Eminence And The Jio Institute Furor: The Wrong Debate For India And Its Youth