Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Vodafone Idea Limited Q4 FY 2026 and FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Abhijit Kishore, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited. Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you, Yashashree. Good afternoon and a very warm welcome to all of you. Thank you for making the time to be here today. On 16th May 2026, our board of directors adopted the audited results for the quarter and year ending March 31st, 2026. All the results related documents are available on our website, and I hope you have had the chance to go through the same. This has been a quarter and a year of meaningful significance for Vodafone Idea Limited. Let me share our progress on the key strategic initiators. After which I'll hand it over to Tejas, our CFO, who will share the details on the company's financial performance. Before moving on to the results, as you already know, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group, has taken over as the Non-Executive Chairman of Vodafone Idea's Board of Directors.
In addition, the Aditya Birla Group has also committed to infuse an additional equity of INR 4,730 crore. These developments reaffirm the strong and continued commitment of the promoter group to our long-term growth. Mr. Ravinder Takkar, who served as the Non-Executive Chairman, continues on the Board as the Non-Executive Vice Chairman. I would also like to update you on the AGR matter. This has been an area of close attention for all stakeholders. Following the Honorable Supreme Court's direction permitting the government to reassess our AGR liability, a DoT constituted committee completed its review and communicated its decision on April 30th, 2026. Our AGR dues have been finalized at INR 64,046 crore as of December 31st, 2025, a reduction from the earlier frozen figure of INR 87,695 crore.
The structured repayment schedule provides significant long-term clarity for the cash flows. The payment schedule till FY 2035 remains unchanged. The balance AGR dues have to be paid in six equal annual installments of INR 10,608 crores from March 2036 to March 2041. This development meaningfully improves our balance sheet and provides a definitive conclusion to the AGR matter. Tejas will cover the accounting treatment and financial impact of this development. We are deeply grateful to the Government of India for conclusively resolving the AGR matter. This is not just a resolution for Vodafone Idea as a company, it is a statement in support of India's digital infrastructure ambitions. I'm also delighted to share that our credit rating and outlook was upgraded by ICRA in March 2026.
We were assigned an ICRA BBB rating with positive outlook to the company's long-term fund-based terms loan even before the recent AGR reassessment exercise concluded. This is a significant milestone and an important enabler for our ongoing engagement with lenders. Moving on to our performance. Our quarter four FY 2026 and full year FY 2026 operating and financial performance marks a decisive step forward in our journey. As you would recall, we had introduced the seven KPI that we benchmark our performance against. I am happy to share that we have delivered against all seven of these parameters. Let me briefly highlight our performance across each of these seven parameters. I'm particularly pleased to share that during the quarter, we are able to stabilize our subscriber base to 192.8 million customers vis-a-vis last quarter. A first since the merger.
More importantly, we have registered improvement in subscriber numbers for the first time post-merger in the month of February, which has continued into March as well. Our revenue for quarter four FY 2026 was INR 11,332 crore, a 2.9% growth on a YoY basis. Revenue for the full year grew by 3% to INR 44,873 crore in FY 2026 from INR 43,571 crore in FY 2025. The cash EBITDA for FY 2026 was INR 9,217 crore versus INR 9,198 crore in FY 2025. We also saw a healthy expansion of our customer ARPU from INR 175 in quarter four FY 2025 to INR 190 in quarter four FY 2026, a growth of 8.3% year-on-year.
The customer ARPU has now been increasing for the 19 consecutive quarters. The customer ARPU expansion over the last year has been driven primarily by premiumization, which is evident from our improving 4G, 5G subscriber mix, which stood at 66.9% in quarter four FY 2026, up from 63.8% in quarter four FY 2025. We closed the quarter with 128.9 million 4G/5G subscribers, up from 126.4 million in quarter four FY 2025. Our data usage in quarter four FY 2026 has also increased year-on-year by over 30% to 83 PB/day from 63.8 PB/ day in quarter four FY 2025. We also added over 17,300 new unique broadband towers this year. Our focused execution has also translated into better customer engagement, as reflected in the data usage.
The average data usage by a 5G and a 4G subscriber improved 27.2% year-on-year to 20.2 GB in quarter four FY 2026. Moving on. First, let me update you on our network initiatives. Over the last six quarters, we have deployed over INR 16,000 crore and added approximately 30,000 unique broadband towers and expanded capacity by adding over 126,000 new broadband layers. We also expanded 4G capacity by over 27% and improved our 4G population coverage over 86% on pan-India basis to deliver superior connectivity and experience to our customers. We have always maintained that consistent and right investment has been key in stemming our subscriber losses, and we are now witnessing tangible outcomes as 4G coverage and 5G presence deepens across circles. On 5G we have made substantial strides.
Since the launch of our 5G services in Mumbai in March 25, we have expanded our 5G footprint significantly. I am pleased to share that our 5G services are now live in over 80 cities across all our 17 circles where we have 5G spectrum. This expansion underscores our commitment to delivering a superior network experience to our customers. Next, our differentiated product offerings and market initiatives. Vi has always been a brand known for creating differentiation. We intend to sharpen this differentiation further across consumer and enterprise offerings. Our Non-Stop Hero proposition, which offers unlimited data to our subscribers, continues to witness great traction and has been recording a sequential growth of over 25% for the last three quarters. In the postpaid segment, we continue to register sequential positive net adds for eighth consecutive quarter.
Our Easy+ offering designed specifically to cater to the needs of enterprise postpaid customers. We expanded the portfolio with addition of personal loans to its offering. We upgraded our Vi App offering and also supercharged it with AI capabilities. We launched an AI-powered recharge assistant, which optimizes value-based selection of recharge plan for our users. Under the Vi Protect umbrella, we categorized over 2 billion calls and SMSs as suspected spam this quarter. Additionally, we are currently blocking nearly 250,000 domains as spam to secure our network. The Vi brand continues to garner strong awareness and brand affinity across all customer segment in the country. We continue to make extensive progress on the marketing front by communicating key differentiators to customers, entering into alliances, and introducing various innovative products and services.
This quarter, we also entered into strategic partnership with Chennai Super Kings as their official communications partner, giving us strong salience during this IPL. Vi Number Rakshak campaign at Kumbh was recognized at London International Awards and the Clio Awards this quarter. Moving on to our enterprise business. On the enterprise side, during the quarter, enterprise offerings across connectivity, cloud, IoT, business communication, mobility, and cybersecurity demonstrated strong momentum with increasing enterprise adoption across key sectors, including BFSI, manufacturing, utilities, logistics, and government. We are also developing the dedicated enterprise corridor by strengthening the fixed line capabilities with the addition of 1.3 TB network capacity across data centers, enhancing scalability, resilience, and high-speed connectivity for enterprise customers.
We earned multiple prestigious recognition, including Innovative Connectivity Solution of the Year at the Asian Telecom Awards 2026 for our CCaaS offering and the Aegis Graham Bell Award for innovation in IoT. The telecom industry is well positioned for growth as need for connectivity is driven by a fast-growing economy, a growing and young population, rising technology adoption across all age groups, lower rural tele-density, and increasing smartphone penetration. Collectively, these improving trends and developments give us increasing confidence in our ability to participate in the industry's growth story. Before I hand over to Tejas, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the people behind these results. As I stated earlier, we are guided by a simple belief of employees first, customer always, and experience is everything.
The progress we have made this year on our network, customer retention, and execution has been delivered by a team that has shown remarkable commitment through a challenging period. Our employees have stayed focused, working relentlessly to rebuild the brand by delivering differentiated services and providing innovative offerings. These trends across KPIs are a clear reflection that our strategic initiatives and employee efforts are translating into tangible improvement. With that, I'll hand over the call to Tejas, our CFO, for the financial commentary. Thank you.
Thank you, Abhijit. Good afternoon, everyone. We continue to impress, witness improving trends across key financial metrics. Let me start with the revenue. Revenue for the quarter was INR 11,332 crore, registering a year-on-year growth of 2.9%. At a full year growth, this translates to 3% at a revenue of INR 44,873 crores. Sequentially, quarter-on-quarter, on an EBITDA basis, it also grew 2.3%. This quarter actually is the highest average daily revenue in the last six years. Coming to EBITDA. EBITDA for the quarter was INR 4,889 crore, improving 4.9% versus the same quarter last year. This actually translated into an EBITDA margin improvement of 80 basis points to 43.1%.
The EBITDA for the full year also grew by 4.8% at INR 19,003 crore. The cash EBITDA for quarter four also improved by 4.8% to INR 2,432 crore versus the same quarter last year. The cash EBITDA for this year, for this full year ended at INR 9,217 crore. It showed only a marginal improvement, and this is due to the 17,300 sites rollout, which actually shows our focus on overall cost management. Investment for the quarter was at INR 2,294 crore and closing the full year at INR 8,742 crore for investment.
Also, pleased to share that our bank debt has further reduced to only INR 726 crore as at March 31st from INR 2,326 crore from the March of last year, a reduction of INR 1,600 crore. The free cash bank balance stood at INR 3,715 crore as of March 31, 2026. Let me briefly explain the accounting impact of the AGR settlement. On the AGR matter, the company received a communication from DoT on April 30th stating that the committee formed for the purpose of reassessment has finalized the AGR dues at INR 64,046 crore for the year 2006-2007 to 2018-2019.
The payments against these AGR dues of INR 64,046 will be made as first a minimum of INR 100 crore annually from FY from March 2032 to March 2035 and subsequently INR 10,608 crore annually for the next six years, i.e., from March 2036 to March 2041. In addition, the company also has to pay spectrum usage charges amounting to INR 609 crore with interest in respect of FY 2017-2018 and FY 2018-2019 in six annual installments of INR 124 crore between March 2026 and March 2031. Hence, the company has already paid INR 124 crore as of March 2026.
Consequently, in accordance with the applicable accounting standards, the financial liability of INR 80,502 crore as at 31st December 2025 was derecognized and a revised financial liability of INR 24,880 crore was recognized, which is the present value of the reduced liability and the future's payments, as I stated above. The resulting difference of INR 55,622 crore, along with net impact of other related provisions, has been credited to the P&L as an exceptional item in the quarter and the full year financials ended March 31, 2026. With this one-time benefit in exceptional items, we recorded a net profit of INR 51,970 crore in Q4 FY 2026 and a net profit of INR 34,552 crore for the full year of FY 2026.
To summarize, this quarter reflects the continued improvement in our operational and financial performance. In line with our stated strategy and ambition, we continue to make progress, including securing funding for future CapEx, and the capital infusion from the promoters is a significant step in that direction. With that, I hand over the call back to Yashashree. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Participants connected on the audio may please press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We'll take our first question from the line of Sanjesh Jain from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call. Sorry, taking my questions. Couple of them. First, on the ARPU, if I adjust the days, it appears that ARPU has grown, over 3.2% sequentially. What is driving this strong growth? Because premiumization still underwhelming, we have added only 0.4 million customers on 4G and 5G. What is driving such a sharp ARPU improvement? Is this better engagement with the customer? Can you help us understand and how much more is left in these efforts to drive organic ARPU growth for us?
Yeah. Thanks, Sanjesh. I'll answer that in two parts. One, obviously, as you rightly said, and which is also reflected in the data consumption that you saw, which has grown over 30%, which clearly reflects that the customers are now experiencing a very different network across the country. Second, I think the increase that we see in our unlimited data customers and the proposition, which is a differentiated proposition that we launched last year, which is the Non-Stop Hero, which really gives the customer the freedom of using unlimited data 24/24 hours. That really is pushing, as I said, that quarter-on-quarter, we see a significant increase of almost 25% on the Non-Stop Hero. Both of these, investment on network, addition of sites, increase in capacity, increase in population.
We've also added roughly around 48 million more population to our entity, you know, which was not being able to experience our services. All of that put together, you know, is the reflection in the ARPU, which is a very, very, strong ARPU growth, and we intend to keep this growth on.
Got it. Got it. How much more do you think this is possible? Because I can see we are at a significant discount on an ARPU versus the peers. Is there a significant gap which we can bridge through these efforts?
Two parts, Sanjesh. One is, obviously we are looking at these differentiated offering to, you know, bridge some part of the gap, but I don't think the gap will be bridged only with this. The way to understand this is the mix of the customers that we have. You know, as I said, you know, we have almost 67% of our customers now on the smartphone, with 33% of them being on a feature phone. I think that's a big lever for us to push, and that opportunity is available with us to upgrade our customers. That's one. Second, when we look at our smartphone base and the split between the customers who are still not using data with us, though they are using smartphone on our network, that's a second opportunity that we see.
The third opportunity is there are a lot of customers who are still using a data quota, which is a 1.5 GB a day or a 2 GB a day, for them to move into a truly unlimited Non-Stop Hero data. I think all of these things put together, we still see a large amount of opportunity that we have in the ARPU upgrade.
Got it. Got it. My second question is on the subscriber. We have almost reached to a flattish versus a decline historically. Can you help us understand how are we behaving in the areas or in the locations where we have added the network versus the areas we have not added the network? To just get a sense, what does it really means in terms of CapEx and that translating into a subscriber growth?
Yeah. Sanjesh, if you see our deployment of INR 16,000 crore over the last six quarters that I spoke of, you know, that obviously has gone into a graded manner in different circles, depending upon the number of customers that we had in a circle. I'll just pick up one circle, for example, say, for example, Maharashtra, and this is one example. We have circles like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, UPE, some of these circles where we have invested a little more than the other circles, depending upon the customer availability that we had and the gap that we had. We see a very significant change in the customer, in three things actually. One, customer acquisition. Second, the quality of customer being acquired. The third is on the base retention.
We clearly see a difference in the circles and in the areas within those circles where we have been able to add more layers, providing better experience, better capacity, and better coverage to the customers.
Any number you want to put where we have put the network, how much we have grown, just to understand the intensity of benefit we can get?
I mean, I'll say that the numbers are significantly better. We don't share the numbers circle-wise, but we can tell you that the circles that I named, those places, we have kind of significantly grown better. Also one of the things that we are also seeing, which is helping both upgrading the customers, as well as subscriber addition, is the number of 5G cities that we have been able to launch over the last one year, which is upwards of 80 now. We can't share the numbers, but you can pretty much safely assume that these are some of the circles that I named. There, the differential is pretty significant as compared to other. Most of the circles have grown, but these circles have grown differentially over the other circles.
Got it. Very clear. My next set of question is more like on the OpEx and the fundraise. Network operating cost declined sequentially while we continue to add the site. What's driving the efficiency in the network OpEx? Number two, on the fundraise, where are we in terms of debt fundraise that we are anticipating to come, how soon? Because that will be key enabler in FY 2027 in terms of the execution of our plan. One related question on the shareholding pattern. Now, I think both the promoter probably post CLM adjustment for Vodafone and Aditya Birla Group taking the preferential issue now reaches probably first time an equal shareholding in the Vodafone and Idea. Will that change anything in terms of the board structure or the agreement between the promoters?
Okay. Three questions you've asked. One is on the OpEx, network OpEx, which I'll let Tejas answer. Before that, I'll give you an answer on the debt raise and the second was on the promoter shareholding pattern. On the debt raise, you know, as you would know, we've, we maintain our CapEx for the over the next three years for INR 45,000 crore. We are looking at a funded of a INR 25,000 crore and a non-funded of a INR 10,000 crore facility. We are deeply engaged. As we've said, it's a SBI-led consortium which is looking into it, which forms part of the PSU banks, the private banks, as well as the foreign banks. We are very confident of closing that very fast. Don't want to put a timeline.
As you would imagine, you know, some of these things, until it's kind of closed, we would not want to share that. That's on the debt. We are, yes, we are very confident that our CapEx intensity of what we have spent in the last quarter or the last year is only going to intensify towards the total of a INR 45,000 crore that we have laid for ourselves over the next three years. As far as the shareholding pattern is concerned, you know, as you would know, these are the claim settlement. Current shareholding pattern is 16.07% for Vodafone Plc. 9.57% for the ABG Group.
That post the changes on the warrants on the preferential allotment as well as the claim, will stand differently, but that is only after the equity is completely converted. That's where we stand right now. The last part on the question that you said that will there be any change, I don't think there is any change that we are looking at in the board structure. Now, I'll hand it over to Tejas for the OpEx on the network.
Thanks, thanks for the question. If you look at just quarter-on-quarter, and I'm just clarifying the numbers, we are INR 2,361 on network costs in the prior quarter. We are at INR 2,345, so small decline. I think I spoke about the cost management efforts as well. Second, you know, broadly over the last few years, we've worked on reducing our dependence on diesel and working on, you know, electrification of our networks. I think that has also helped. Abhijit has also in the past spoken about our self-optimized networks. I think both of them put together has allowed to keep the network cost flattish in a way.
No, no. Tejas, I was referring more like we have added 6% more site on a YoY basis. On the number of site, if I add the loading, it is much higher. We have added almost 70,000 BTS in last 12 months, while the growth on the network OpEx is just 0.8%.
Yeah.
One, obviously it appears very heartening, but how sustainable is this? Should we see inflation coming from next year or there's more scope?
I think those, I'll answer the quarter and the full year. Actually, you'll see the same trend on quarter and on full year. I think we've definitely benefited with the efficiency efforts that we have spoken in the past. You are right. We have been able to offset the increase that you would have otherwise seen on the rollout cost. I think that one is totally aligned. Also, If you look at the cash cost, which we also look at our cash EBITDA, in the future, you will see a little bit of inflation, but our efforts on efficiency will not go away. We will attempt to offset increase of the rollout. Yes, we will be then lapping a year of this benefit already, and hence you might see some inflation going forward as well.
For this year and this quarter, as you are saying, it was heartening to see the efforts fructifying to be able to offset the rollout cost with efficiency.
Got it. Thanks, Abhijit. Thanks, Tejas, for all those answers, and best of luck for the coming quarters.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vivekanand Subbaraman from Ambit. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. Abhijit, I wanted an update on the seven key metrics that you are tracking. Now, my understanding is that there are certain input metrics, and the remainder are output metrics so of the KPIs that you're tracking, which are input related, what are the highest priority areas for FY 2027? Is there any thought process that you can share with us to help us understand this better? How this translates into you being able to step up outcome metrics like data usage per customer, or even the ARPU number that you are talking about the customer ARPU number? Thank you.
Yeah, Vivekanand. T hanks for the question. You know, those seven metrics that I spoke of that we track is basically revenue, EBITDA, customer addition, then the broadband customer addition, ARPU, site, and the data usage. If you really look at it, other than the data customers and the subscribers, you know, most of them are the output related metrics. If you were to really, all of these seven are very, very critical for us. One of the things that, you know, we have always been asked question is on the subscriber, because, you know, while we will have three pillars of growth that we have always looked at, which is one is on the ARPU upgrade, which is whether it is from a base or the upgrade. Second is on the customer addition.
Customer addition remains a key priority focus for us, you know, what has turned into positive from February onwards, and we will continue that momentum to build on that. As far as the output is concerned on the ARPU, well, I spoke about on the premiumization. I think that agenda is also a very, very critical agenda. On the other part, I think the one of the very critical agenda for us, looking at the gap that we have, is on the rollout and the deployment on the network for both 4G and 5G, which is again, part of the seven metrics.
I think in a manner, all seven are critical, but from a input point of view, customer addition, site rollout, and the broadband customer, which is a 4G, 5G customer, these three remain from a very critical one from a input parameter point of view.
Okay, very helpful. Just, one follow-up on the customer addition question.
Yeah.
Your churn has moderated quite a bit this quarter. If I look at the gross adds, they seem to be lower on a year-over-year basis, most likely because of your churn getting moderated. What has really helped you in terms of moderating subscriber churn? The related question is there any moderation in the market activity at an industry level to reduce the rotational churn? Are there any initiatives that you want to call out, and how should we think about the churn for you, let's say in the next 12 months, if the direction as well as any numeric thought process that you want to share? Thank you.
Thanks. Thank you, Vivekanand, for asking that question. I think, you know, while, yes, the answer is that we have kind of reduced in the churn percentage, still, you know, if you were to look at the industry, we are very high. That is one area that we are still working on. As I was telling Sanjesh, that the areas where we have invested relatively more than the other areas, we clearly see a delta of retentivity. It is obvious from the fact that the customers, when they're getting the experience, they tend to stay with us. Obviously, there are X% of customers which keeps migrating from either a feature phone to a smartphone. When they have an opportunity of upgrading it within our network, you know, that adds to our retentivity exercise.
The other part of the thing that I would like to address is on the gross addition, which you said, and, you know, your observation is absolutely correct. We have taken some of the strategic decisions of reducing some of the cost of acquisition, which effectively means a better quality of customer. You know, in this industry, the cost of acquisition, willingly, unwillingly gets translated into a discounting in the market. We are cognizant of that. As and when we are launching the network, both 4G and 5G, we are conscious of that, and we are reducing the cost of acquisition and also spreading our business through the distribution channel to start focusing more on the quality of customer acquisition rather than the quantity of customer acquisition.
That is one of the reason why in the last call, earnings call, I had said that if you were to really look at our acquisition, in quarter two, our acquisition was INR 21.8 million, which was dropped to INR 19.3 million in quarter three, and which we have maintained at INR 19.1 million in quarter four, was in a manner by design to ensure that we are able to get a better quality of customer. That obviously reflects in a better churn and retentivity as well. That's one part of it. The second part is on the MNP, which is a large industry, as you would imagine in the Indian context. 47% of the customer acquisition happens where the customer is moving from one to the other operator.
We have been a small player in that with around 20- odd percent share, and I think that's something that we are focusing on, again, in the areas where we are putting a network. There is a very, very focused strategy market by market to look at how do we extract from the infrastructure that we are putting both on 4G and 5G.
Thanks, Abhijit, for the detailed explanation. My last question is not just to you, but to Tejas as well. Currently, your cash EBITDA margin is 20.5%. I want to understand from you, the CapEx cycle, after you complete it, where do you see this EBITDA margin trend towards? We know that the gap between your EBITDA margin and that of the peers is very significant. If you can help us understand how we should think about it quantitatively and also any levers that you want to point out. I think some of them you discussed already, which is your cost curtailment program on network and SG&A. If you can help us think this through better, it'll be great.
Last year, we didn't see any incremental EBITDA margin because, well, you know, revenue got added, but not cash EBITDA didn't flow through.
Well, thanks for the question, Vivekanand . I think as you have heard us before, I mean, if you look at the ambition that Abhijit has shared at the investor call we had, we are significantly looking to uptick our revenue, and hence also the flow through to the EBITDA cash margin. If you see where we are today, we are at 20%, and you are absolutely right. As I think of the next three, four years, this has to absolutely increase. If you kind of use the same numbers I've shared with you before in terms of a double-digit revenue growth and the cash EBITDA number, this will be north of 35% right now. Which, in which year, in which exact year, et cetera, I think we don't want to share that numbers.
That should be our ambition, and that will be the EBITDA margin if we do what we have said in the past on our revenue growth and our cash EBITDA growth. I think the levers, as you have said, and again, we have discussed in the past as well, largely three levers of growth, which is customer, Abhijit has spoken about it. ARPU, I think we have spoken about it. I think the industry pricing architecture over the next two, three years, and as that plays through and our own confidence on dropping churn, which we have seen, the performance of our circles that we have seen when we will put our CapEx. Those are all the levers we will use and leverage as we look at flowing this revenue into the bottom line.
Thank you, Tejas. Appreciate the color all the way.
Thanks, Vivekanand. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ritvik Agrawal from 3P Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Hey. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Just wanted to understand, with the ongoing increase in smartphone prices due to RAM shortage, how are we seeing this migration from 2G to 4G? The second question on CapEx, I feel this quarter the CapEx was lower as compared to some of our peers. Where do you think this can go in the coming quarters? Yeah.
Thanks, Ritvik, for asking that question. I think from a smartphone penetration point of view, yes, there's a little bit of a dip that we saw in the smartphone being sold in the country. I think to my mind, that's more temporary, and it's not kind of a phenomenon that's gonna stay. We see typically between a 3%-4% upgrade within our network itself on the customers who are upgrading from a feature phone to a smartphone. That doesn't seem to be coming down, at least in the last few months that we have noticed. We are keeping a close eye. I don't think that's, to be honest, a concern. That's point number one. Point number two is the way we really look at it is the opportunity and the headroom available.
As I said, you know, we have 33% of our base using a 2G handset, which is a large opportunity as compared to anybody else in the industry. We are really focusing on that opportunity and starting to put the network in those areas and capacities in these areas where we have those kind of a customer who will upgrade, and they need to have a much better experience. I don't think that, to be honest, is a concern. On the second question is on the CapEx. You know, as I said, we have spent INR 8,700 crore in the last full year, versus the INR 9,600 crore of the previous year.
You know, our CapEx intensity, as we have laid out our plan for the next three years of INR 45,000 crore, absolutely remains intact, and we are on that course. You will see a far greater intensity of the CapEx starting from quarter one and then even intensifying in the subsequent quarters of this financial year.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Gaurav Malhotra from Axis. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions. One, when I look at the VLR subscriber number percentage, it's still lower than peers. Just wanted to get a sense on, you know, why this should be, say, lower than competitors. The second question is, you know, now that, you know, you have launched 5G, any sense on FWA plans, et cetera? Thanks.
Yeah, Gaurav. Thanks for the question. I'll answer the second one first. On the FWA, yes, we are, we kind of looking at some of the pilots. You know, we, as we said, that we launched Mumbai on the 5G last year, and now we are upwards of 80 cities. We are evaluating FWA. Right now, the focus largely on the mobility, because I think we have a large gap on the mobility front on both 4G and 5G. I think the focus will definitely be on the mobility and the connectivity. FWA will be a part of the strategy, but only in a select places. That's the strategy that is there. That's what we had said even last time.
On the VLR question, you know, we have a mix of customers who, because of the network experience, remains patchy at some time, which obviously results also into a much higher churn. That's the only reason that we see that we have a fairly decent proportion or a large proportion of customers who keep moving in and out of the network, which impacts the VLR being lesser. This VLR percentage, if I look at some of the circles are upwards of 93%, 92%, but in certain circles it pulls us down by 80%, and hence it remains in the range of 88%-87%. That's the answer to the VLR.
If I understand correctly, it's not as if these are inactive subscribers, it is just that they may be multi-SIM, multi-SIMers who are sort of, maybe some of them are not using the Vi number as frequently to fall within the VLR ambit. Is that my understanding correct?
Primarily, yes, Gaurav. Primarily, yes. They could be because, you know, obviously some of them will fall into a inactive and hence then they churn out, and which kind of gives the delta to be a larger churn. Primarily, these are not the inactive customers. They are the customers who are in and out of the network, depending upon their experience and their usage.
Just a follow-up. This, this sort of, shifting customers, these would be 4G or these would be more, 2G customers?
It will be a mix of both, actually, 2G and 4G. Depending upon, you know, which geography and which circle are we looking at.
Okay.
Depending upon how the experience is, yeah.
Thank you.
Thanks, Gaurav .
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Balaji Subramanian from IIFL. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two questions. The first one is on the subscriber growth side. While, you know, we can see and understand the different levers that you have for ARPU, and you have clearly articulated that as well, how do you see the subscriber growth going forward? The context I'm asking is this. We have, you know, two strong operators who have reached fairly close to their steady-state subscriber market share. From, you know, there on, you know, what is your strategy to, you know, grow the subscriber base? Is it going to be, you know, churning customers away from them? Does that mean that we are going to see a higher marketing spend across the industry?
The second question would be on, you know, you know, what exactly you know, how do you plan to make the spectrum payouts from FY 2028 onwards? FY 2027 looks fairly manageable because based on whatever claim commitment that you might end up receiving and the promoter equity infusion. Going forward, especially, you know, in case there is no further equity issuance and no, you know, meaningful conversion of any spectrum debt into government equity, how do you know, plan to tackle those? Thank you.
Okay. Thanks, Balaji. I'll take the first one on the subscribers. four clear levers on the subscriber addition. First is obviously, as I've spoken, you know, some of your colleagues asked on the on the base part. One part of our, as you know, our base churn is 4.3%, which is pretty significantly higher than the others. The moment we start putting in the network and the capacity, we clearly see that to be coming down. You know, we are targeting a 0.5%-0.6% reduction in the churn. That's one lever on the customer addition for which I really don't have to go out and look in the market. Second part on the subscriber addition is the new population that I'm adding.
Over the last six quarters, we have added 125 million more population within the area where we have covered. Over the next, I'll say a year and a half, when we add another 60,000-70,000 sites on the 4G, that's another 125. That makes it roughly around 250 million more population, which I'm not covering. That's the second lever for me to have the growth, which is a territory where I'm not present today. Third, I spoke about the MNP, which is obviously I'm participating in that market, but I'm not really fairly represented in that market. That's the third one, that, linking to your point on saying, will that be really taking customers from others?
I think, you know, if you obviously know the market, roughly around 1.4 odd crore customers every month is in the market in the MNP segment to be acquired. I think we play a very small part there with some three odd million customers. There is a 1.1 crore customers in the market, which is shifting side between the two operators. I think that's the third lever, which is clearly there. The last one is wherever we are gonna put network or where we already have network. We have been over-leveraging the network on the gross acquisition, which I touched upon briefly, which really means that your quality of customer that you acquire is not as good as probably the other operators.
We are now focusing very clearly on making sure that our quality of customer is as per the industry standards, which we see as an opportunity. These four things put together is what the strategy is on the customer acquisition. As far as on the higher spend because of the customer acquisition, no, the answer is no. We will rather put per sub cost of acquisition to be lower than this year. Yeah, if there is a volume variance which happens as compared to this year, those costs will go up. I would rather be focusing more, which is again one of the stated strategy that we discussed, is on the brand reappraisal.
I think that's one area and opportunity for us to see that now that the vicious cycle of, you know, losing customer confidence because of the AGR overhang, if once that is kind of now conclusively behind us, we see a very, very clear opportunity and the gap in the market to put and reappraise our brand and its positioning. You will see some heightened activity on that front, but definitely not in the market to kind of participate in the market if I'm not really getting the quality customer.
Balaji,
I think that answers my first question. If I can have a quick follow-up. When you said the second point on expanding population coverage, I would presume that there would be, at least, you know, one of the other two large competitors there, right? That also would entail, you know, some bit of, you know, you know, churning away from them, assuming that, you know, or, you know, MNP led gains there. Is that a fair statement?
Yeah, there will be some part of that in those areas, because obviously, if there are only two players available or one player available and the market is large, I'll be able to participate in that area.
Yeah, that answers my first question in case, yeah, on the second, yeah.
On your question on the spectrum payout, right? I think right now we are not looking at any kind of change or adjustment in that spectrum payout. I think to your question, how are we looking to pay this? I think if I can just simply articulate, if, let's say, over the next three years, I think these are numbers or discussions that we've had probably in the past as well. If you look at our CapEx ambition, we want to spend INR 45,000 crore of CapEx. Over the next three years, which is INR 7,000, INR 15,000, INR 27,000. This is the spectrum I have to pay. That makes it INR 49,000. Then I have to also service my debt that I'm taking. Let's say another, say, INR 5,000-INR 6,000. If you add up that's about INR 1 lakh crore.
I'm starting this year with a cash balance of more than INR 3,500 crore. Let me look at the cash sources for the next three years. As we've shared, we want to really look at tripling our EBITDA, and I think we spoke about the levers as well. That gives me a cumulative cash EBITDA between FY 2027, 2028 and 2029 of about INR 60, 000. We've spoken about the debt, INR 25,000 crores funded and a rolling LC facility, which we will keep utilizing for the next three years. That gives me another INR 35, 000. On top of that, we have the claim settlement, and we have had confidence in our income tax refund that we've also shown in the past. That amount itself will be another INR 10, 000 in totality with the claim and the IT refund.
That gives you 105+ the opening balance. I think now what you see in terms of promoter infusion, that will actually go on top of already a positive cash flow. I think in that sense, we are very confident that with the bank loan for the CapEx and for the EBITDA addition, we'll be able to fulfill all our obligations across the next three years. Now the infusion, of course, is on top. That is what we have shared, and that's what I would like to say. Hope that helps, Balaji.
Okay, thank you. This is very clear and super helpful. All the best.
Thank you, Balaji.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that we'll take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Abhijit Kishore for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Let me wrap up by restating our ambition. You know, as you heard Tejas say, our three-year targets are unambiguous, sustained net customer addition, double-digit revenue growth and triple the EBITDA. We are backing these targets with INR 45,000 crore of investment, strong promoter commitment and a leadership team that has managed through some of the most challenging conditions in the Indian telecom and emerged intact. The worst is behind us. The seven key parameters that we track are already moving in the right direction. The seventh, net subscriber addition, is narrowing fast. We enter FY 2027 with a clear strategy, improving operational momentum and growing confidence in the trajectory ahead. Thank you all for joining in.
Thank you. On behalf of Vodafone Idea Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your line.