Vi Awards Next Phase 4G Expansion and 5G Deployment to Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung

Vi, the telecom JV between UK’s Vodafone and India’s Aditya Birla Group and the 3rd private telco of India has chose South Korean Samsung, Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson for 4G expansion and 5G rollout in certain circles for next 3 years for $3.6 billion. This is probably first time Vi cut deals with Samsung for network equipment, while Nokia and Ericsson being Vi's long term partner. With these deals, Vi is replacing Chinese vendors (Huawei and ZTE) on its networks.

In the deal worth Rs 13,500 crore, Nokia will replace the previous vendor (mostly Huawei) in Chennai/Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh where Vi generated more than 50% of revenue. Apart from these 2 key circles, Nokia will deploy its equipment in Mumbai, Gujarat, Haryana, UP-East, UP-West, West Bengal and Kolkata. It's a big blow to Huawei, and ensures growth for European vendors. Ericsson will deliver equipment 10 circles - Delhi, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Odisha, Maharashtra, Northeast, Assam, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh and Samsung will supply to 3 circles - Karnataka, Punjab and Bihar. 

Experts believe that these deals hurt OpenRAN possiblities in India, as Vi & Mavenir conducted OpenRAN trials in February 2024 and planned for an large scale deployment. Interestingly Nokia has some great products to support Open RAN, like Habrok radios for massive MIMO, ReefShark SoC technology, self-organized MantaRay network platform. 

What I still believe OpenRAN is a technology from future, and without being it as cost-effective alternate solution, India will not embrace it. Vi, already financially struggling to roll out 5G on commercial basis - is not in a position to deploy a tech which is not tested in large market. 

While both Jio and Airtel are in better terms with finance, Vi is looking for another fundraising plan in 2 months, as Vi’s CEO Akshaya Moondra told to analysts, via Rs 25,000 crore of bank loans and Rs 10,000 crore of revolving LC-facilities.