Vodafone Idea Shares Surge 14% on 5G Deal

New Delhi, Sep 23 (PTI) Shares of Vodafone Idea on Monday jumped 14 per cent after the firm awarded contracts worth about Rs 30,000 crore to Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung for supply of 4G and 5G network equipment for three years.

The stock surged 11.73 per cent to Rs 11.71 on the BSE.

At the NSE, it soared 14 per cent to Rs 11.94.

It is the largest deal awarded by any Indian telecom operator during this year.

The deal also marks the first step towards the roll-out of the company's three-year capex (capital expenditure) plan of about USD 6.6 billion or Rs 55,000 crore announced earlier.

"Vodafone Idea (VIL) has concluded a mega, about USD 3.6 billion (around Rs 300 billion), deal with Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung for supply of network equipment over a period of three years. The capex programme is directed towards expanding the 4G population coverage from 1.03 billion to 1.2 billion, launching 5G in key markets and capacity expansion in line with data growth," the company said in a statement on Sunday.

The supplies against these new long-term awards will start in the coming quarter.

The top priority for the company is to expand the 4G coverage to 1.2 billion Indians, the statement said.

VIL CEO Akshaya Moondra said that the company has started the investment cycle and it is on the journey of VIL 2.0.

"From hereon, VIL will stage a smart turnaround to effectively participate in the industry growth opportunities. Nokia and Ericsson have been our partners since our inception and this marks another milestone in that continuing partnership. We are pleased to start our new partnership with Samsung. We look forward to work closely with all our partners as we move into the 5G era," Moondra said.