Vodafone Idea Limited Now Officially the Largest Telco in India

The merged entity is now the biggest telecom operator in India with 408 million subscribers.

Balesh Sharma has been appointed as the CEO of this venture.

(Photo Courtesy: Vodafone.co.uk/Twitter/@ideacellular/Altered by The Quint)

It’s official! Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have officially completed their merger to become the largest telecom operator in India with a combined subscriber base of 408 million and a revenue market share of 32.2 percent.

This merger dethrones Bharti Airtel from the top which currently has a user base of 344 million as of July 2018. Reliance Jio becomes the third largest telecom operator in the country with 215 million subscribers.

The company had announced Kumar Mangalam Birla as the chairman of this venture while Balesh Sharma has been announced as the company CEO.

Vodafone Idea Limited has claimed that for consumers both Vodafone and Idea will continue to operate individually but at the operational front it will be one entity.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) had given a conditional nod for the merger of these companies on 9 July and had asked them to meet the demands raised for taking the merger on record.

Soon after that, a senior DoT official privy to the development confirmed that the final approval had been accorded to the merger, and the two entities would apprise the Registrar of Companies (RoC) of the various approvals received, wrapping up the last leg of formalities.

Vodafone will own 45.1 percent stake in the combined entity, while Aditya Birla Group will have 26 percent and Idea shareholders 28.9 percent.

Idea Celluar had been struggling especially in the 4G space but with this merger, Idea will be able to take advantage of Vodafone’s extensive 4G infrastructure.

(With inputs from PTI.)