MUMBAI: Vodafone Idea Ltd., India’s leading telecom service provider, today announced the successful consolidation of its radio network integration in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh within a short span of just two months.

With this, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are amongst the first eight circles to complete integration in the world’s largest network integration exercise which is currently underway in India. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh circle integration which started in the month of December ’18 was completed within a very short span of just two months.  

Vodafone Idea coverage is now available across 664 Towns and 53130 villages in the Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh circle covering 2,60,800 sq km area. 4G coverage has expanded to nearly 52% population in the region covering 77 Districts including 633 Towns and 18759 Villages, for customers of both brands.

According to  Vodafone Idea Ltd Circle Business Head Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh circle Rajesh Naik, “The successful consolidation of network in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh circle will enable over 3.2 Crore customers of Vodafone and Idea to enjoy a unified network experience on 2G, 3G and 4G.  We are deploying new age technologies to enhance customer experience as we are building a robust, future ready network in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.”

In other circles, network integration is taking place on a cluster-by-cluster basis and the subscribers of both Idea and Vodafone brands are gradually moving to a much larger and better network experience.  Post integration, customers are enjoying high speed 4G services with faster connectivity.

Speaking about this mammoth network integration and consolidation project, Vodafone Idea Ltd. Chief Technology Officer Vishant Vora said, “With meticulous pre-merger planning and rigorous post-merger execution, we have ensured that our customers remain confidently connected and enjoy uninterrupted services even as we integrate and optimize our network in a phased manner across circles. We have partnered the best of global vendors and equipment suppliers to bring the best network experience for our customers.”

A focused, three-pronged strategy is driving this consolidation of two individually strong and overlapping networks:

• Make the better and dominant of the two networks in each circle as the anchor network
• Complement anchor network with required support from the other network, and
• Further enhance network capabilities and capacity with the introduction of new technologies such as Dynamic Spectrum Re-farming (DSR), Spectrum Re-farming, M-MIMO and Small Cells.

This core strategy is being rigorously executed across all circles with meticulous planning and smart use of advances in technology by a team of experts from Vodafone Idea along with global vendors.

Further, war rooms have been set-up at national and circle levels to monitor and manage network performance on a real time basis led by Vodafone Idea’s 24/7 functioning world class SNOC in Pune. The company has undertaken special measures to avoid customer inconvenience with shifting, movement and deployment of equipment during the integration process.