Vodafone Idea Ltd., India’s leading telecom service provider, today announced the successful consolidation of nearly 25% of its pan-India radio network integration within a short span of just five months.

With this integration of network, customers of both Vodafone and Idea brands are able to enjoy a unified network experience on 2G, 3G & 4G, in the service areas of West Bengal, Haryana, HP, Assam, North East, AP & Telangana (excl. Hyderabad), J&K and MP & Chhattisgarh.

In addition to the full radio network consolidation of the above 8 service areas, 4G radio network consolidation has been completed in the city of Bangalore, and high speed 4G services have now been made available to both Vodafone and Idea customers in Kolkata metro. The company has also re-farmed 10 MHz of 4G spectrum of Vodafone in Mumbai to enable its customers in the metro get better data experience. In other circles, network integration is taking place on a cluster-by-cluster basis and the subscribers of both brands are gradually moving to a much larger and better network.

Speaking about this mammoth network integration and consolidation project, Mr. Vishant Vora, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone Idea Ltd. said, “With meticulous pre-merger planning and rigorous post-merger execution, we have ensured that our customers remain confidently connected and enjoy uninterrupted services even as we integrate and optimize our network in a phased manner across circles. We have partnered the best of global vendors and equipment suppliers to deploy new age technologies, with in-built customizations and novel innovations to ensure a rich customer experience while building a robust, future ready network.”

A focused, 3-pronged strategy is driving this consolidation of two individually strong and overlapping networks:
I. Make the better and dominant of the two networks in each circle as the anchor network.
II. Complement anchor network with required support from the other network, and
III. Further enhance network capabilities and capacity with the introduction of new technologies such as Dynamic Spectrum Refarming (DSR), Spectrum Re-farming, M-MIMO and Small Cells.

This core strategy is being rigorously executed across all circles with meticulous planning and smart use of advances in technology by a team of experts from Vodafone Idea along with global vendors.

Further, war rooms have been set-up at national and circle levels to monitor and manage network performance on a real time basis led by Vodafone Idea’s 24/7 functioning world class SNOC in Pune. The company has undertaken special measures to avoid customer inconvenience with shifting, movement and deployment of equipment during the integration process.

Update on Network Integration: Key Facts
? Over the last 5 months nearly 25% of the radio network has been successfully consolidated.
? Radio network consolidation completed in 8 circles - West Bengal, Haryana, HP, Assam, North East, AP & Telangana (excl. Hyderabad), J&K and MP & Chhattisgarh, resulting in good improvement in 4G data throughput and coverage.
? 4G coverage extended to over 750 mn population on a pan-India level
? With joint spectrum firing, 4G throughput has shown quick improvement of “1X to 2X” in many of these service areas.
? 4G ICR is now available in over 60K sites across all circles.
? Enhanced the capabilities of more than 4.7K sites through dynamic spectrum re-farming.
? By end of Jan 2019, nearly 45K co-located and low utilisation sites have been switched off.

The formation of Vodafone Idea Ltd on August 31, 2018, following the successful merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, set the stage for the world's biggest telecom network integration in India.

Vodafone Idea is the telecom service provider of choice for nearly 422 million customers, and we remain fully committed to offering all our customers the best of experience.