Vodafone Idea plans for a tie up with Amazon to raise Rs 20k crore

By Our Special Correspondent

Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL), a debt-ridden telecom operator, is trying to collaborate with US retail giant Amazon to invest up to Rs 20,000 crore in Telco. According to reports, Vodafone Idea, India's third largest Telco will use the proceeds from the auction for the upcoming 5G spectrum.

According to a latest report Amazon may have invested in Vodafone Idea as it is the only major cloud services giant without a telecom partner. Over the past two-three years, US tech giants Face book, Google and Microsoft have invested in the country's top two telecom operators - Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel - to strengthen their cloud offerings in India.

In addition to Amazon, Telco, led by the Aditya Birla Group, is also in talks with several private equity investors who plan to take exposure to the Indian telecom sector. Vodafone Idea, in its fourth quarter results, showed signs of recovery as it added more than 1 million new 4G subscribers, while its consolidated operating gains increased 22%, with the help of recent tariff hikes. This investment from Amazon will allow it to compete with rivals Airtel and Reliance Jio.