Telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd on Monday laid out an ambitious financial roadmap to generate and secure over ₹1.08 trillion in cash over the next three years, betting on a sharp rise in operating earnings, possible bank debt funding, income tax-related recoveries and promoter support to fund its turnaround.
The telecom operator has to pay ₹49,000 crore towards spectrum dues over the next three years, execute a capital expenditure plan of ₹45,000 crore for network expansion and upgrades, and meet interest payments of about ₹5,000-6,000 crore to service bank debt, taking its cumulative outgo to nearly ₹1 trillion.
“…we are very confident that with the bank loan for the capex and for the Ebitda addition, we will be able to fulfil all our obligations across the next three years,” Vodafone Idea’s chief financial officer, Tejas Mehta, told analysts during the Q4 earnings call. Ebitda is short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Financial planning
As of the end of March, the telecom operator had a cash and bank balance of ₹3,715 crore. Mehta said the company’s funding sources would include tripling Ebitda to ₹60,000 crore during FY27-FY29, raising ₹35,000 crore through bank debt and a rolling line of credit facility, and securing ₹10,000 crore from the recent settlement with Vodafone Plc and expected income tax refunds.
The details on the cash sources, along with the recent commitment by promoter Aditya Birla Group to invest ₹4,750 crore, come at a time when analysts have raised concerns about the company’s future payment obligations to clear spectrum dues. This is when the company also needs significant investments in network expansion to improve its subscriber base.
In a note dated 24 December 2025, brokerage house Ambit Capital said that Vodafone Idea will need an average revenue per user (Arpu) of ₹300 in FY30 to survive. This is possible only if the telecom industry tariff repair continues, it said.
Sharing an update on the much awaited bank funding, Vodafone Idea chief executive Abhijit Kishore said, “we are deeply engaged as we have said. It’s an SBI (State Bank of India)-led consortium, which is looking into it, which forms part of the PSU (public sector undertaking) banks, the private banks, as well as the foreign banks and we are very confident of closing that very fast”.
Kishore did not give any timeline for closing the debt round.
at this stage is crucial for the company to invest in network expansion and become a competitive player in a market where two operators—Bharti Airtel and —have a 77% market share.
Steady subscriber base
In the fourth quarter, Vodafone Idea managed to stabilize its subscriber base at 192.8 million, and also improved its Arpu to ₹174 a month from ₹172 in the December quarter, outperforming peers despite two fewer billing days. Jio reported Arpu of ₹214 a month at the end of March, while Airtel’s Arpu stood at ₹257, both largely flat sequentially.
The telecom operator has attributed the improvement to customer upgrades, a focus on quality subscribers rather than quantity, and improved data consumption on the network, especially the increase in traction for its unlimited data plans.
To increase the subscriber base, Kishore shared four levers, such as expanding population coverage with new users, targeting the mobile number portability (MNP) market, focusing on quality over quantity, and reducing subscriber churn, which the telecom operator is banking on.
“Our 4.3% (churn), which is significantly higher than the others. The moment we start putting in the network and the capacity, we really see that it’s coming down. We are targeting a 0.5-0.6% reduction in the churn,” he said.
According to Kishore, over the last six quarters, Vodafone Idea added network coverage for 125 million people. With plans to add 60,000 to 70,000 new 4G sites over the next 1.5 years, the company expects to cover an additional 120 million people, creating a massive new target audience of roughly 250 million people in previously unserved or underserved territories.
“While acknowledging additional support from the government and VI’s new ambitions, we think there is no quick fix to Vi’s underlying fundamental challenges,” said brokerage house Macquarie in an 18-May note.
“It would be key to watch from both Vi and Indus Tower’s perspective if this (promoter support) gives comfort to the lenders to approve the long-pending ₹250 billion ( ₹25,000 crore) debt fundraise, needed to execute its larger network-upgradation capex plan of ₹450 billion ( ₹45,000 crore) over three years to help grow its subscriber base,” said analysts at JM Financial in a 17 May note.
Q4 earnings
During the fourth quarter, reported its first net profit in about six years at ₹51,970 crore owing to a one-time accounting gain from the government’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) recalculation. It incurred losses of ₹7,167 crore and ₹5,286 crore in the year-ago and quarter-ago periods, respectively.
Excluding the exceptional gain, the fourth-quarter loss stood at ₹5,515 crore.
Revenue from operations, which has been improving marginally, rose 2.9% year-on-year and 2.3% sequentially to ₹11,332 crore in the quarter.
In 2025-26, it witnessed a 3% increase in revenue from operations to ₹43,571 crore. The company posted a net profit of ₹34,552 crore, compared with a loss of ₹20,217 crore in the previous year. The Ebitda for the year rose 4.8% to ₹19,003 crore.
The company incurred a capital expenditure of ₹8,742 crore in FY26.
On Monday, shares of Vodafone Idea ended 0.2% higher at ₹12.98 on National Stock Exchange. The Sensex ended 77.05 points or 0.1% higher at 75,315.04.