Vodafone Idea Limited Q2 FY26 Concall Decoded: ₹1.12 lakh crore revenue, 29-city 5G rollout, and ₹79,000 crore AGR elephant quietly breathing in the room

1. Opening Hook

Vodafone Idea’s Q2 FY26 concall felt like a carefully choreographed comeback trailer—new CEO, new CFO, new philosophy, same old AGR monster lurking backstage. The company spoke passionately about “Employee First” while investors silently wondered, “Balance Sheet First, when?”

Between 5G launches, AI spam protection, IoT labs, and Vi Finance, Vi sounded less like a telecom operator and more like a digital supermarket trying to stay relevant in a brutally competitive market. Subscriber losses were politely called “seasonality,” capex discipline was pitched as strategy, and AGR relief was discussed in hushed, hopeful tones.

The numbers weren’t disastrous, the narrative was optimistic, and the execution roadmap looked… expensive.

Read on—because behind the buzzwords, the real story is about survival, funding, and whether Vi can hold the line long enough for relief to arrive.

2. At a Glance

• Revenue ₹111.9 bn: Growth crawled, but at least it moved forward.
• Reported EBITDA ₹46.9 bn: Accounting optics still doing some heavy lifting.
• Cash EBITDA ₹22.5 bn: Reality check—capex cycles don’t pay for themselves.
• ARPU ₹180: Slowly inching up, still chasing peers’ shadow.
• 4G+5G subs 127.8 mn: Net adds exist, but churn refuses to disappear.
• Capex ₹17.5 bn (Q2): Network first, balance sheet later.

3. Management’s Key Commentary

“Employee First, Customer Always, Experience is Everything.”
(Balance sheet politely not invited to the philosophy party 😏)

“We have rolled out 5G in all 17 priority circles contributing 99% of revenue.”
(Coverage is everywhere… monetization still warming up.)

“4G population coverage has increased from 77% to over 84%.”
(Seven percentage points, several thousand crores.)

“We see subscriber loss as seasonality.”
(Season seems to last multiple quarters.)

“AGR dues stand at ~₹79,000 crore.”
(Say it softly, maybe it won’t grow.)

“We are confident the government will find a long-term solution.”
(Hope is not yet an accounting standard 🙃)

4. Numbers Decoded