Vodafone Idea hands $3.6B in deals to Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung

　　India's Vodafone Idea has awarded a huge $3.6 billion deal for mobile network equipment to Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung.

　　The deal is a first step toward the rollout of the company's three-year capex plan of $6.6 billion to expand 4G coverage, launch 5G in key markets and boost capacity as data consumption continues to grow. But the service provider has not revealed the division of the network gear order between the three vendors.

　　"These contracts will allow the company to quickly capitalize on the latest state-of-the-art equipment to offer enhanced customer experience," Vodafone Idea said in its press release. "Further, the learnings and insights obtained by the vendors in the Indian market over the last two years will enable the company to embark on a more flexible and modular rollout plan by customizing the services for all advanced technologies (4G & 5G)."

　　The deal shows that, after raising funds earlier this year, Vodafone Idea is taking a significant step to boost network coverage as well as improve customer experience. That will be crucial as it struggles to defend its subscriber base. Vodafone Idea continues to lose market share as customers switch to rivals because of quality-of-service issues.

　　However, its priority is to boost 4G population coverage from the existing 1.03 billion to 1.2 billion. Vodafone Idea's update comes shortly after, Bharti Airtel, India's second-biggest telco, was reported to have given network gear deals worth $1 billion to Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung earlier this month. Airtel is also focusing on 4G expansion, not 5G, to transition its 2G subscriber base to 4G.

　　First time for everything

　　This would be the first time Vodafone Idea has used Samsung. After working exclusively with market leader Reliance Jio on 4G radios, the South Korean vendor is now supplying gear to Airtel and Vodafone Idea as well. The deal is also vital for European vendors Nokia and Ericsson, both of which have reported a drop in sales revenues as telcos have cut spending on 5G. Ericsson previously said it was banking on a deal with Vodafone Idea and the investment of telcos in millimeter Wave (mmWave) equipment to make up some of the shortfall.

　　Vodafone Idea raised 240 billion Indian rupees ($2.87 bn) and acquired additional spectrum earlier this year. The rollout of new sites and the deployment of more spectrum at existing sites had helped it boost capacity by around 15% and improve population coverage by 16 million by the end of September 2024.

　　"We are on our journey of VIL [Vodafone Idea Limited] 2.0 and from hereon, VIL will stage a smart turnaround to effectively participate in the industry growth opportunities," said Akshaya Moondra, Vodafone Idea's CEO. "Nokia and Ericsson have been our partners since our inception and this marks another milestone in that continuing partnership. We are pleased to start our new partnership with Samsung."