Allocate unsold spectrum at a price: Voda Idea CEO

NEW DELHI: Ahead of 5G auctions, Vodafone Idea MD & CEO Ravinder Takkar has said that the telecom department should consider “allocating” spectrum that is left unsold to mobile operators at a certain market-discovered price as companies scale networks to meet the country’s growing digital consumption.
Takkar, who is leading the turnaround strategy for Vodafone Idea that struggles with a Rs 1. 9-lakh-crore debt and heavy losses, also said that the company is gradually moving towards sorting out its financial woes as it reaps synergies of the merger between Vodafone India and Idea Cellular , while looking to close in on an estimated Rs 20,000 crore in fresh funding very soon.
The only roadblock before getting the external funding — to be divided equally between debt and equity — is the wait for the government to fulfil its promise to pick up a stake in the company by converting its Rs 16,000-crore interest demand into a near 33% equity. “It is a process, (and) it doesn’t happen overnight… (but) why would somebody put in money when they don’t know how much the government will own?. . . for a third-party investor, the government equity holding is an important point,” Takkar told TOI.