Vodafone Idea Will Shut Shop If Government Doesn’t Provide Relief

Vodafone-Idea Ltd may have to stop its operations if the company does not receive any relief from the government following the Supreme Court order to pay dues of Rs 92,000 crore on both of these companies to the government related to the AGR issue.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group, commented on the troubles being faced by the telecom sector. Birla said that it would be difficult for companies to pay such enormous amounts in a matter of three months.

“It does not make sense to put good money after bad. That would be the end of the story for us. We will shut shop,” he said, when asked if Vodafone Idea plans to make fresh investments.

Reliance Jio Becomes Largest Telecom Operator In India

Reliance Jio has become the country’s largest telecom operator with a subscriber base of 331.3 million, based on second quarter figures released individually by both telecom operators.

In figures released, Vodafone-Idea said its user base had declined in Q2 to 320 million. On the other hand, Reliance Jio last week reported it had reached 331.3 million subscribers by the end of Q2, taking the lead.

Indians Use the Highest Amount of Data Per Smartphone

India has the highest data usage per smartphone, reveals the Ericsson Mobility Report for the June 2019 edition. The number stood at 9.8GB per month on average for a smartphone at the end of 2018.

Ericsson’s report says that the increased numbers of LTE subscriptions, attractive data plans being offered by telecos coupled with changing video viewing habits among the younger have helped driven up monthly usage in India per smartphone.