Vodafone's India bill for four years is £12bn

NEW DELHI, INDIA: This is no good year for Vodafone. First, a marginal increase in subscriber base against newcomer Uninor, then India's federal police raids on its offices and now, a bill £12bn.

That is the company's bill for four years, according to a research. It seems Vodafone is paying a real heavy price with its entry into India market.

This year, Vodafone managed to add 923,940 new subscribers to take its total subscribers base to 145.92 million while Uninor, new entrant to the sector, got 2.67 million new subscribers totalling its base to 32.32 million.

India's Central Bureau of Investigations raided the offices of Vodafone and its rival Bharti Airtel in New Delhi and Mumbai on Saturday and registered a case against the company officials charging them with "criminal conspiracy" in granting additional 2G spectrum.

However, the companies said that spectrum allocation was in accordance with rules.

But it is alleged that Airtel and Vodafone got favors from the Union telecom ministry, and hence there was a phenomenal subscribers' growth during that period.