Vodafone to increase retail footprint in Punjab

Ruchika M. Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

After witnessing substantial revenue growth in Punjab telecom circle, Vodafone is looking at increasing its retail footprint and getting aggressive in data services.

It will also strengthen its mobile wallet service — M Paisa. More bundled solutions in the mobile wallet space will be offered so as to increase its usage from the present 93,000 subscribers. For this, it will increase its M Paisa agents across Punjab from the present 2,500 agents.

Pushpinder Singh Gujral, business head — Punjab, J&K and Himachal, Vodafone South, said the company has managed to secure a 17.7% revenue market share in the Punjab telecom circle. “The subscriber base is 4.9 million and it is growing rapidly. To offer the best customer experience in Punjab, the company is planning to have more Vodafone stores and Vodafone mini stores in the coming days, besides converting some of the big format Vodafone stores into Global Design Stores.

With data showing a significant momentum in Punjab by growing 70% year on year, we will get more aggressive in offering various data use packs,” he said.

Admitting that call drops was a big issue, he said various external and internal factors were responsible for it. “Vodafone is proactively working on reducing call drop rate in its network. The company has set up a Super Network Operations Centre and a Super Networks Experience Centre at Pune which monitors the functioning of the BTS sites, and in case of any snag, the teams are alerted to rectify the problem and ensure a seamless connectivity,” he said, The company has 4,931 sites and has invested Rs 1,400 crore in Punjab to date.

He said though no definite timeline has been assigned to the launch of 4G in Punjab, the 4G service in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Kochi was being launched shortly.