Vodafone-Idea Achieves 5.9 Gbps Speed In 5G Network! Add New Users For The First Time In Last 4 Years

For the first time since erstwhile Vodafone India and Idea Cellular merged nearly four years ago, Vi has added active mobile users in March 2022.

It added 0.2 million active subscribers in March, taking its active user base to 226 million.

It reported narrowing its year-on-year loss to Rs 6,563 crore in its fourth-quarter result.

Growth In Revenue And ARPU

Its revenue grew by 5.4% to Rs 10,240 crore, supported by tariff hikes effective November 25, 2021.

The telco’s average daily revenue (ARPU) rose by 7.7% quarter-on-quarter, the highest quarterly rise since the merger.

However, the company is not out of the woods yet.

Fundraising Still Essential

To ensure survival it needs to raise capital as early as possible.

ICICI Securities commented that aside from needing to raise capital, subscriber churn also needs to be controlled, while the network spends lag vis-a-vis peers.

Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal was also candid in saying that Vodafone Idea has been saying for the last two years that it will raise money, however nothing has come through.

Record Speed Achieved

Vodafone Idea has achieved a record download speed of 5.92Gbps during its 5G trials in Pune.

This is a significant improvement over the speed achieved in previous trials which was 4Gbps.

It also topped the chart with regards to 4G upload speed, with an average speed of 8.2Mbps in April.

Download speed allows users to access content from the internet, while upload speed helps them to share it.

Pune Trials

The peak download speed of 5.92Gbps was achieved using one test device.

The Pune trials are being conducted on a stable combination of the high band (mmWave) and mid-band trial spectrum, using Ericsson’s Massive MIMO equipment.

The trial also used Ericsson’s Standalone architecture and New Radio-Dual Connectivity.

With the help of this software, Vodafone Idea will be able to provide low-latency bandwidth for demanding use cases such as AR/ VR and 8K video streaming.

5G is expected to account for 39% of all mobile subscriptions in India by 2027.

5G Global Coverage In 5 Years

It is also on track to become the dominant mobile access technology by subscriptions globally by 2027.

By that time it will cover around half of all mobile subscriptions worldwide, accounting for 75% of the world’s population and carrying 62% of the global smartphone traffic.

All the data is from the Ericsson Mobility Report, November 2021 edition.

It should be noted that when 5G is launched, the number of subscribers will have a major role in effective upload and download speed.