Vodafone is said to be in talks to acquire broadband service provider YOU Broadband, according to a latest report from the Economic Times. The deal is tipped to be priced at Rs 400 crore, said the report.
Both the companies have been in talks for about three months with the deal expected to be sealed soon. TRG Capital-owned You Broadband has around 3,000 kilometers of optic fibre and 6,000 kilometers of last mile cables to homes across 12 cities including Mumbai. The move comes from Vodafone as it tries to expand its high-speed broadband footprint ahead of Reliance Jio Infocomm’s commercial launch and to take on rivals like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular. Reliance Jio Infocomm launched 4G LTE services for its employees last month. This is not the first time Vodafone has urged acquisition talks in regards to a broadband service. Last month, it was reported that Vodafone is looking forward to buy 4G LTE spectrum from Mumbai based ISP provide Tikona Digital Networks, in a bid to expand its high-speed broadband network across the country.
Vodafone is following Airtel and expanding its 4G operations in the country. The YOU Broadband acquisition is said to give Vodafone the necessary push to expand its 4G LTE coverage even further.