Vodafone invests Rs 208 cr in Kerala

BANGALORE: Telecom operator Vodafone India has invested over Rs 208 crores on ramping up network and distribution in Kerala in the last financial year (April 2014-March 2015).

With this expansion, Vodafone now reaches out to customers in over 1,530 towns and villages. As part of its endeavour to be ‘Future Ready’, the company is focusing on the key areas of customisation, enhanced connectivity and retail, a statement said.

Vodafone has added over 150 new sites, 1,400 retail outlets and taken M-Pesa, its mobile money transfer service, deeper into the migrant pockets to engage more closely with a diverse customer base in Kerala, it said.

Abhijit Kishore, Business Head – Kerala, Vodafone India, said, “Our investments over the past year have been directed at putting in place a network that our customers can rely upon, especially in the interior regions. We have simultaneously been expanding retail and distribution network to get closer to customers across urban and rural geographies. The growing popularity of smartphones has led to a rise in demand for high speed data services."

"Over the past year, we have also made deep inroads into the heartland of Kerala, reaching out to the migrant pockets and highlighting the safety, speed and simplicity of transferring money through Vodafone M-Pesa. At Vodafone, we see ourselves as end to end communications solutions providers and the enterprise segment is an area where we have been steadily expanding our scope of offerings to suit the needs of large and small Corporates and businesses," added Kishore.

Vodafone now has over 5,300 2G sites in Kerala circle, covering over 97% of the region’s population. Vodafone through an Intra Circle Roaming arrangement with other operators is also ensuring to provide 3G services for its customers across 1,000 towns and villages.

Data revenues from the region is rising at a growth rate of 75% YoY. Data now contributes to 14% of total service revenues in the circle.

Presently, Vodafone has more than 238 retail outlets in Kerala, including 38 Vodafone stores and close to 200 Vodafone Mini Stores.

Over the past 12 months, Vodafone has added nine Vodafone stores and 30 Vodafone Mini Stores in the state. Today, Vodafone has nine Global Design Retail stores in the region.

Vodafone M-Pesa was launched in April 2014 in Kerala and currently has close to 2,000 + agents and a customer base of 66,000 in the circle.