For a company with 193 million subscribers, an increase of roughly 300,000 can sound like a rounding error. At Vodafone Idea, it is news. The Indian mobile operator ended June 2026 with 193.1 million connections, up from 192.8 million in March. It was the first quarter of net subscriber additions since Vodafone India and Idea Cellular merged in 2018.
That is a modest recovery against a very long retreat. It is also a more useful starting point than the new yellow sphere in Vi’s logo or the September campaign featuring Shah Rukh Khan. Advertising can announce that a company is changing. The next recharge tells you whether the customer agrees.
Vi sells the ordinary necessities of a connected day: phone calls, mobile internet, text messages and access to entertainment. It also sells the less visible connections that keep businesses operating. The question hanging over its rebuild is straightforward: can it make those services dependable enough to win back spending while paying for the infrastructure behind them?
A small rise after a long fall.
01A merger with an enormous opening act
Vodafone Idea arrived through corporate consolidation, joining Vodafone’s Indian operation with the Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular. The merger completed on August 31, 2018. The surviving legal company has an older birth certificate: it was incorporated as Birla Communications Limited in 1995.
At completion, the partners described a combined business with nearly 408 million customers. They expected annual operating and capital-expenditure synergies of ₹14,000 crore. Joining networks promised to remove duplication and give a larger operator the resources to compete. The combined business also carried approximately ₹1.09 lakh crore of net debt, on the adjusted basis disclosed at the merger.
Size did not protect the subscriber base. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel became the principal private alternatives for Indian mobile customers; state-owned BSNL supplied another choice. By September 2024, Vi reported 205 million subscribers. Whatever the benefits of combining operations, the original scale had not translated into a durable hold on customers.
Financial pressure intensified after the October 2019 Supreme Court judgment on adjusted gross revenue, or AGR. The dispute concerned which revenues counted when calculating government dues, including income outside core telecom services. Vi said the decision had damaging implications for an industry already under financial stress. This was a balance-sheet problem with consequences for a business that needed continuing investment.
The shared Vi identity arrived in 2020. It gave two brands one public face, but the central problem remained expensive and physical: coverage, capacity and enough financial room to improve both. By 2024, a new phase depended on access to fresh equity and a schedule for deploying equipment. The business needed the money and the building work to arrive together.
02The money has three different labels
Start with the April 2024 follow-on public offer, which raised ₹18,000 crore. In September, Vi announced approximately $3.6 billion, or ₹30,000 crore, of network-equipment contracts with Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung over three years. Those contracts formed part of the larger capital programme announced at the time. Cash raised, supply commitments and a spending target are different things.
Public equity through the FPO
Three-year equipment supply deal
Annual capex reported by Vi
By August 2026, management was discussing a ₹45,000 crore investment plan for the following three years. The first quarter’s capital expenditure was ₹1,930 crore. Management said supply-chain headwinds had constrained deployment and reported roughly ₹9,000 crore of orders, including work already undertaken. An order book is an instruction to build, not a finished network.
The work extends beyond adding a 5G symbol to a handset. Ericsson’s 2024 agreement covered upgrades to existing 4G operations as well as 5G deployment. Nokia separately announced optical-transport upgrades in March 2025. Those links carry traffic through the network behind the radio connection. Faster access needs sufficient capacity further along the journey.
There is also the question of whether a signal reaches indoors. In Kerala, Vi said in September 2024 that it had deployed additional 900MHz spectrum across 8,000 sites in all 14 districts to improve indoor connectivity. That is a concrete version of network investment: work intended to help in the places where customers actually sit, rather than only expanding a coloured patch on a national map.
The government has altered the financial timetable, too. A 2025 conversion of spectrum dues into equity brought its stake to 49% at that point. In April 2026, the Department of Telecommunications reassessed specified AGR dues to ₹64,046 crore and set a payment schedule stretching into FY2040-41. That relief matters, but it does not itself install equipment or collect a recharge.
“FY27 is the year of execution for us.”
Abhijit Kishore · CEO · August 2026
03The product is the next uninterrupted minute
For consumers, Vi’s most interesting proposition may be its willingness to sell relief from a small, recurring irritation. Nonstop Hero, launched in January 2025, targeted prepaid customers who exhaust their daily data allowance. Eligible plans offer unlimited data on 4G and 5G. The pitch gives people a reason to consider the service even if they are still using a 4G handset.
A 2025 advertisement made the problem almost painfully familiar: a young man tries to wish his girlfriend abroad a happy birthday, only for low-data warnings to interrupt the call. The product’s logic requires little explanation. A person buys a plan to use the internet; being asked to top up halfway through a conversation is an unwelcome second transaction.
Vi’s other offerings serve different spending habits. Vi Max, introduced in November 2022, brought a refreshed postpaid range with data, entertainment, billing controls and service benefits. Family plans organize several connections around a household bill. International roaming serves travellers, while eSIM and Wi-Fi calling address practical device and connectivity needs. Eligibility and benefits vary by plan and location.
Entertainment gives the company another reason to stay on the customer’s screen. Vi announced a Netflix partnership in May 2024, initially bringing bundles to prepaid users. Vi Movies & TV aggregates streaming services and television through subscription options. The Vi app handles recharge and account tasks alongside digital services. Each added benefit makes the mobile relationship a little more useful between payments.
Commercial 5G began in Mumbai in March 2025, with introductory eligible plans starting at ₹299 at launch. That historical price is not a promise about today’s checkout. Vi’s approach was phased deployment; the practical purchase decision still depends on the current pack, compatible phone and coverage at the intended location. A national launch announcement cannot settle those local questions.
04A network also has a business address
The household phone bill is only one part of the company. Vi Business sells enterprise mobility, internet and private connectivity, cloud services, cybersecurity, business communications and Internet of Things solutions. A business can use that portfolio to connect offices, equip employees or manage devices that transmit data without a person making a call.
One disclosed example is Guwahati Municipal Corporation. Vi says it supplied more than 2,500 mobility SIMs with a location-tracking solution, helping the municipal organization connect with its workers remotely. The customer problem is operational coordination. The network supplies a service that an employer can use across a distributed workforce.
The commercial logic differs from selling another entertainment pack. Businesses buy connectivity and managed capabilities through ongoing relationships; consumers buy prepaid validity or postpaid subscriptions. Both create recurring revenue, but the needs, support expectations and purchasing decisions differ. Vi’s expertise lies in running communications infrastructure and assembling services around it, with equipment and software partners doing important pieces of the work.
That distinction also matters when reading the recovery. In the August earnings call, management said postpaid and machine-to-machine connections led the positive subscriber quarter. The number is a real improvement, but it should not be read as proof that every part of the consumer business has turned. A connected machine and a returning prepaid customer tell different commercial stories.
Inside the organization, the stated culture prizes speed, trust, boldness, passion and digital working. Careers materials promote inclusion, learning and flexible working. These are the company’s own descriptions. The operating challenge makes them testable: retail, engineering and customer service have to deliver a consistent experience while a large network is changing underneath them.
05The room where the comeback gets tested
Vi generated ₹44,873 crore in revenue in the year ended March 2026. For April-June 2026, revenue reached ₹11,689 crore, while the company still reported a ₹3,754 crore net loss. Subscriber momentum and financial recovery are related, but they are not interchangeable. Better operating trends must eventually support the continuing expense of running and renewing the network.
For a potential customer, the sensible test is smaller than the corporate story. Check current coverage and eligible plans for the places you use your phone. If feasible, try a connection at home, at work and along your commute before moving your main number. A bundle helps when its data, entertainment or family benefits replace something you would otherwise buy.
The lesson another business can copy is an inference from Vi’s approach: make a specific service improvement, measure whether customers stay, then expand the promise. It depends on the capacity to deliver. If financing or equipment supply stalls, if local coverage disappoints, or if the bundle solves no real customer problem, the marketing has little to support it.
September’s refreshed identity moved Vi’s yellow element above the “i”. The company said existing numbers, SIMs, plans and benefits would continue unchanged. It is a tidy visual announcement of an ambition. The more consequential change will happen quietly, in the room where a call used to fail, when a customer decides to recharge again.