Vodafone Idea has urged the Department of Telecommunications to extend the deadline to meet the minimum obligation to launch 5G services. August 16 is the deadline.
Vodafone Idea is delayed in launching the 5G services because of the absence of funding. Vodafone Idea is the only one among the telecom operators who is yet to launch their 5G services.
They are currently testing their 5G services across cities such as Delhi and Pune. The commercial deployment of 5G services by Vodafone Idea will start once they place the order with the equipment makers.
In the annual report for FY23, Vodafone Idea said that they have made select 5G clusters in Delhi and Pune where they have partnered with various original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to test the compatibility of available 5G handsets. They have completed device testing of all major OEMs on their 5G network.
Vodafone Idea has also said that it will continue to make investments in expanding 4G coverage and capacity, especially in its 17 priority circles and will introduce 5G services as soon as the funding is in place.
The telecom operators will have to commercially launch services anywhere in the metro as well as non-metro cities as per the year-one 5G roll-out obligations set by the Indian Government.
This means in a circle like Delhi, the services can be made available just in one area and not the entire city. The same way is expected to be done in the non-metro circle too.
Vodafone Idea or Vi is an Indian mobile network operator with its headquarters based in Mumbai and Gandhinagar. As of March 31, 2023, Vi has a subscriber base of 225.90 million, which makes it the third-largest mobile telecommunications network in the world.
The company was created on August 31, 2018, by the merging of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular to form the now-called Vodafone Idea.
