Articles
The Vodafone-Idea-DOT Drama
Dt: 29/10/25
The Vodafone-Idea-DOT Drama
Dr T H Chowdary*
Not a month, sometimes not a week passes without a dual being fought in the Supreme Court of India between the telco, Vodafone – Idea (VI) and the DOT, the latter claiming tens of thousands of crores of rupees as dues from the VI and the latter disputing them and pleading for a just settlement. The duals before the Supreme Court have been going for the last few years.
2. The cardinal facts so far are: The VI has been losing subscribers and thousands of crores of rupees quarter after quarter for the last several years ;it had some of its dues to DOT converted into a equity to the extent of a little over 49% (!); the DoT claims another Rs. 1,95,000 cr as dues from VI. Besides this disputed dues to DOT, Vodafone has huge debt to creditors ( mainly banks)
3. The simple end to these court battles is to convert part or whole of what DOT claims into equity ( as before) so that the VI becomes a government’s PSU, one of the several score loss-making PSUs like MTNL, BSNL etc. GOI’s ability to keep loss-making PSUs (like for example AIR India for years) going is apparently unlimited.
4. The BSNL’s share of the cell-phone market is about 8%. If it is to provide 4G and 5G services, all over India, it must invest as much money as the rivals R-Jio and Bharti Air Tel . Is it prudent to invest as much as its competitors to have an 8% share of the market ? The best course is to convert VI’s debt to DOT into equity, make it a PSU; merge the BSNL, MTNL & VI and see that this new PSU competes with R-Jio and Bharti Air Tel.
5. Finally let us know the following facts.
· The radio spectrum required by the Telcos is not generated by government /DOT. It is generated by the companies themselves. Govt/ decides in which bands, how much they can generate . Is it moral that what government does not generate is auctioned as though it is its property?
· The radio spectrum is inexhaustible; it can be used again and again. Tiny Seychelles has as much as Bharat.
· Sunlight the radiation from Sun is used to produce electricity. Sunlight is not auctioned by government.
· Use of radio spectrum can and has to be regulated so that not more than one Telco uses the same band, in the same areas. The cost of allocation and regulation only can be realised by government. Auctioning radio spectrum as though it is generated by government, hence it is its property is morally not justified. If only cost of allocation and regulation is levied from Telcos, cellphone services may cost no more than clean drinking water and air !
(464 words)
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