India telecom sector facing challenges and under considerable financial stress: Vodafone

"It is very bad. Currently, the whole industry is bleeding. I am trying to rediscover how you get the cost of manufacturing down. At some stage it has to change," the official said on sidelines of India Mobile Congress 2018.

The tariff level in the Indian telecom sector "is very bad" and the whole industry is bleeding, a senior Vodafone Idea official said Thursday.

"It is very bad. Currently, the whole industry is bleeding. I am trying to rediscover how you get the cost of manufacturing down. At some stage it has to change," the official said on sidelines of India Mobile Congress 2018.

Vodafone Group Regional CEO for Africa Middle East Asia Pacific Vivek Badrinath said that it has been widely documented in media, India telecom sector is currently facing several challenges and is indeed under considerable financial stress.

He said that Vodafone is a serious investor in India and has invested about Rs 2.5 lakh crore in the last 10 years of which over Rs 70,000 crore was invested in the last four years alone.

He said post-merger with Idea Cellular, the entity Vodafone Idea is better placed to compete and provide services.

"We believe from a global perspective the market has now consolidated into a sensible number of operators similar to many major telecom markets around the world. Thus, sustaining and nurturing this number of operators is vital for India," Badrinath said.

He said that there is a need to strike a balance between fiscal requirement and investment that are required to be made for the growth of the economy.