Vodafone Idea the third biggest player of the telecom sector in India have struggling to implement 5G for its subscribers. Also planning to raise capital to improve business. As a part of this VI has reduced the validity of Rs. 99 and Rs.128 Plans.
VI’s Struggle
Vodafone Idea (VI) one of the top telecom operators in India, has lost its most of the customer share in the recent times.
The loss is due to the failure of the company to adopt into the new market and competion.
The advent of 4G marked the downfall of the company as the other leading operators Jio and Airtel come up with a faster resolution plan to launch 4G.
Even though VI (Vodafone and Idea two different companies at that time) had more customers at that time than Jio failed to adjust to the new market, which obviously resulted in the loss of prominent customers.
Which in turn resulted in loss of revenue and consecutively ended with the low capital for further investment.
When the company came to the party and launched 4G, the race was moved to the next level as the Telcos are now implementing 5G.
Even with the Government’s resolution plan to save the VI from the debts, the company struggling to find the investment and raise the capital.
Q4 Results
The resent disclosure of Q4 Financial results are not promising for the VI as the company had a Net loss of Rs. 6419 Crores.
But the 4G customer base has seen a slight rise from 121.6 Millions in the last quarter to 122.6 Millions in the March quarter.
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) also seen a increase from Rs. 124 in the previous financial year to Rs. 135 now.
But this would not be enough to attract the investors and provide a better coverage to the customers.
The company to increase the ARPU further has followed on the foot steps of its peer competitors and increasing the price of its plans.
Now VI decreased the validity of two basic recharge plans that comes with validity of 28 Days.
The Rs. 99 plan and Rs. 128 Plan has seen a cut in the validity. These reduction at present is only introduced in the Mumbai Circle. We can expect the same in other circles as well in the near future.
Rs. 99 Plan
Rs. 99 Plan is the minimum recharge plan offered by the VI for 28 days. The Plan comes with the following benefits.
- Talk Time of Rs. 99 in your main account.
- 200 MB Data throughout its validity period.
- This plan does not comes with any SMS facility.
The Validity of the plan has been reduced to 15 Days from the earlier 28 Days. All other features of the plan is remaining unchanged.
Rs. 128 Plan
Rs. 128 plan which was offered for 28 days previously has been now reduced to 18 Days. The scheme comes with the following benefits, which remains unchanged.
- Free 10 On-Net Night Minutes available between 11 PM and 6 AM.
- Out going Calls have a Tarrif of 2.5 Paisa per Second.
- Out going SMS at Rs.1/Rs.1.5/Rs. 5 for Local/STD/ISD respectively.
- Data will be charged at 50 Paisa per MB.
New and Old Tariff Comparision
| Plan | Old Validity | New Validity | Plan Benefits |
| Rs. 99 | 28 Days | 15 Days | Rs. 99 Talk Time, 200 MB Data |
| Rs. 128 | 28 Days | 18 Days | Free 10 On-Net Night Minutes, Out Going SMS Facility, Data at 50 Paisa per MB. |
Conclusion
The increase in Tariff from VI is imminent as the telecom sector is providing more service for the very less price.
The market has been expecting a rise in the plan cost in near future. With other major telecom doing the same VI can not avoid raising the cost of the plan.
It is doing the same with these changes. Though the changes are presently only for the Mumbai Circle, We could expect the same in the other sectors as well in short time.
This will definitely increase the ARPU for the company, but how they can withhold the customer base and raise the Capital has to be seen.