Vodafone Idea disconnects some retail partners to save on costs

New Delhi: Loss making Vodafone Idea (Vi) has removed 5-7% or about 25,000 of its retail partners across the country to reduce costs of sales and distribution. People aware of the details said the cut off retailers were giving negative returns to the operator for a long time, in terms of customer acquisition costs.

According to industry estimates, Vi has a pan-India network of 4-5 lakh retail touch points, like its peers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. Majority of the retailers are multi-brand operators, which means they offer services for all the telecom firms. A few thousand are exclusive retailers of Vi, including some company operated retail stores.