Vodafone Idea needs fundraising at the earliest to restrict loss of subscribers

NEW DELHI: Vodafone Idea needs a sizable fund-raising at the earliest to increase capex to restrict the loss of more subscribers, says a report by Emkay Global Financial Services.

VIL’s subscriber base declined for the 28th month in a row, down by 1.3 million. Subscriber losses persisted in Jul-23, with the telco losing another 1.3mn subscribers.

The VLR base declined by 0.4mn (moderation from 2.5 mn dip in Jun-23), as the VLR proportion improved to 88.6 per cent in Jul-23 from 88.3 per cent in Jul-23. This is the 16th consecutive month of the VLR subscriber-base decline. VIL lost VLR subscribers in 14 of the 22 circles MoM in July. The dip in VLR base was led by UP (E) and Bihar, whereas Maharashtra reported the highest increase in the VLR base, the report said.

VIL’s mobile broadband (MBB) subs declined by 0.6 mn in Jul’23 - declining for the third time in the last 6 months, says a report by JM Financial Institutional Securities.

VIL’s MBB subs declined by 0.6mn in Jul’23, declining for the third time in the last 6 months (with this, Jan’22-Jul’23 cumulatively witnessed only 2.1mn rise in MBB subs).

Further, its active subs base declined by 0.4mn in Jul’23, continuing the declining trend over the past many months due to churn in the lower ARPU segments given the entry level prepaid tariffs undertaken in Jul’21 and Nov’21 and recently as well.

Notwithstanding the moratoriums, VIL needs to close the fund-raise exercise quickly for a meaningful increase in capex to boost upgrade of customers to MBB, the report said.