“I am really sorry about the fact that there are (call) drops in India at the level where we would not like them to be”. He further mentioned that the problem is not with money but the operating conditions. However he cautioned that the company had not “made a final decision because there are many factors that influence (the IPO) one way or the other”.
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Vodafone will continue to invest big in India, the group CEO said adding that this year too they will pump in Rs 8,500 crore as they had done last year.
“My recommendation at my meeting that I had yesterday and today is that if we work together, this thing will go away in six months”. Solutions to call drops need to cover aspects such as more spectrum, more telecom towers, access to sites and right of way. It’s a vicious cycle – more sites, more issues, more bureaucratic administrative problems, more drops. Chief executive officer, Vittorio Colao, who is now in India, told reporters, “I cannot give you a date, but I can tell you [that] we are positively inclined to an IPO and have started a few preparatory work”. Its major Rs 20,000 crore tax dispute on its 2007 deal with Hutchison Whampoa, which facilitated its India entry, is under worldwide arbitration and is progressing in a “cordial” way, Colao said.
“Thanks to competition, the price of technology is coming down every year. I would say it is a good start”, Colao said. So, physically, more things are going on the ground at same investments.
Speaking to the media, he said the Indian government needs to decide if it wants to follow a revenue maximization policy from spectrum auctions or keep airwaves affordable to allow telcos to invest more in the long term, which will improve call quality and facilitate Digital India.
The share sale will also offer investors an opportunity to reap dividends from a market where wireless growth is outpacing that of more mature countries such as Vodafone’s home market, the UK.
On the recent changes in spectrum trading norms, Colao said Vodafone will buy spectrum from rivals. He said the company is one of the biggest digital planners of India and that there would be an explosion of data in the mobile world.
Asked on Vodafone’s stand on Net neutrality, Colao said there should be no discrimination in rules among same kind of service albeit telecom operators should be allowed to segment Internet services.
“Net neutrality ought to be about non-discrimination”.
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Colao also said the company will launch 4G services progressively across India in the months ahead.
