Govt unlikely to up Vi stake beyond 49%, says Jyotiraditya Scindia

The telecommunications sector, which currently accounts for 12-14 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), will grow to about 20 per cent over the next decade, the Union minister said

The government was unlikely to increase its stake in Vodafone Idea (Vi) beyond the 49 per cent it currently holds anytime soon, Union Minister for Telecommunications Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Thursday.

 

Speaking at a press conference on the second day of the India Mobile Congress 2025 here, Scindia said that India’s telecom industry comprises four telecom service providers and hundreds of internet service providers, ensuring ample competition among them.

 

“And why do I say that? Because the (telecom service) penetration is extremely high, with 1.2 billion customers out of the total 1.4 billion population of the country,” Scindia said, adding that it was this competition that ensured both voice and data rates in the country were the lowest globally.

   

India, he said, had effectively “replicated” the industrial revolution digitally over the last decade, connecting more than a billion people through the “world’s largest digital highway”.

 

“If you classify nations by their digitally connected population, India is now the third-largest digital nation in the world,” he said.

 

Scindia highlighted the export readiness of the indigenously developed 4G stack and said that the whole hardware and software framework has been readied within the country in 20 months from when the task was undertaken.

 

“We have about 20 million customers already, which is more than the population of many smaller countries. So, we are in a position to go ahead. We are working with the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) on this,” Telecom Secretary, Neeraj Mittal said. He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event.

 

The next round of spectrum auctions, Mittal said, will depend on the “appetite” of the telecom players, and the government would decide on whether to conduct the bidding only after talking to the telecom service providers and other stakeholders.

 

Mittal also said that though there have been reports of telecom service providers flagging the high reserve prices of spectrum, no company had ever approached the government with any such request.

 

“Not once have I heard any TSP (telecom service provider) write or give any petition or representation that they are not using a spectrum because of its high reserve price,” Mittal said.