The headline looks almost unbelievable. Vodafone Idea — a company that has been haemorrhaging money for years, bleeding subscribers to Jio and Airtel, and haunted by a debt pile so large it can be hard to even comprehend — just reported a net profit of ₹51,970 crore for the fourth quarter of FY26.
That’s not a typo. Fifty-one thousand, nine hundred and seventy crore rupees. In a single quarter. From a company that lost ₹7,166 crore in the same quarter just a year ago.
So what happened? Is Vi finally back? Has the underdog actually pulled off a comeback?
Not quite. The story is more complicated — and more interesting — than either the bulls or the bears are letting on.
The Profit That Isn’t What It Looks Like
Let’s get the accounting bit out of the way first, because it matters.
That ₹51,970 crore profit didn’t come from selling more SIM cards or converting 2G users to 5G. It came almost entirely from a one-time accounting gain of ₹57,491 crore — an exceptional item arising from the reassessment of Vodafone Idea’s Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues.
For years, the AGR dispute has been one of the most damaging things hanging over Vi. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) froze Vi’s AGR dues for the period FY07 to FY19 at ₹64,046 crore and set up a committee to reassess the final liability. Under the revised repayment plan, Vi now pays a maximum of ₹124 crore annually over six years — a dramatic reduction from what was previously expected to be annual instalments of tens of thousands of crores. When Vi ran the numbers on the present value of those future payments, the accounting difference from what was previously provisioned translated into a massive paper gain.
In other words, Vi didn’t earn ₹52,000 crore by running a great telecom business. It booked an accounting entry that reflects the fact that it now owes far less than it previously thought it did.
Strip that out, and the underlying operations actually posted a loss. The underlying business is still losing money, just as it has for years.
But here’s the thing — that caveat doesn’t mean this quarter is meaningless. The AGR resolution is genuinely significant. And buried beneath the accounting spectacle are some real green shoots that deserve attention.
The Stuff That Actually Matters
Once you look past the headline number, Q4 FY26 tells a more nuanced story for Vi.
Revenue from operations came in at ₹11,332 crore, up 3% from a year ago. For a company whose revenues were essentially flat for years, consistent growth — even modest growth — matters. Full-year FY26 revenue hit ₹44,873 crore, also up 3% year-on-year. EBITDA for the full year rose to ₹19,003 crore from ₹18,127 crore, a nearly 5% improvement.
More importantly, ARPU — average revenue per user — climbed to ₹190 in Q4 FY26, up from ₹175 in the same quarter last year. That’s an 8.3% jump, and Vi claims it’s the highest ARPU in the industry. When you’re losing the volume game to Jio and Airtel, squeezing more value out of the customers you do have is the only lever available. Vi is pulling it.
And then there’s the subscriber story, which for so long has been a one-note tragedy. Vi was haemorrhaging users quarter after quarter — losing them to rivals with better networks, better prices, and better reputations. But in February 2026, something shifted. Monthly subscriber additions turned positive. Not by a lot, but positive. The 4G/5G subscriber base grew to 128.9 million by Q4, up from 126.4 million a year earlier. Total subscribers stabilised at around 192.8 million.
The bleeding has slowed. Maybe, just maybe, it has stopped.
The Aditya Birla Vote of Confidence
Alongside the results, Vi’s board approved something that markets have been waiting to see for a long time: fresh equity. The company approved the issuance of fully convertible warrants worth ₹4,730 crore — approximately $500 million — to an Aditya Birla Group promoter entity on a preferential basis.
This matters for reasons beyond the money itself. When one of India’s most storied business groups writes a ₹4,730 crore cheque for a company that has been written off so many times, it sends a signal. The Birlas are not making a charity donation. They are betting that Vi can survive and eventually thrive — or at the very least, that the AGR resolution has made the risk-reward calculation look different enough to justify the investment.
It also helps that Vi has been quietly expanding its 5G network. The service is now live in over 80 cities across all 17 priority circles that generate roughly 99% of the company’s revenue. The company recently announced plans to expand to 133 cities by May 2026. That’s meaningful progress for a company whose 5G rollout was mocked not long ago as perpetually delayed.
The Mountain That Remains
None of this changes the fundamental reality: Vodafone Idea is still carrying one of the largest debt burdens of any company in India.
Even after the AGR relief, the total obligations on Vi’s balance sheet run into lakhs of crores. The government already owns 49% of the company after converting interest dues into equity — a fact that tells you everything about how dire things got. Banks have been cautious about extending fresh credit. Jio and Airtel continue to outspend Vi on capital expenditure by a ratio that would make any CFO nervous. In FY25, Vi invested around ₹10,000 crore in capex — a fraction of the ₹30,000 crore Airtel and ₹46,000 crore Jio were spending over comparable periods.
To compete in Indian telecom in 2026, you need fibre, you need towers, you need 5G spectrum, and you need the financial muscle to keep investing in all three while losing money in the short term. Vi has the spectrum. Whether it can get the muscle is still the open question.
The auditors have flagged concerns about Vi’s ability to continue as a going concern. That language — dry and technical as it sounds — is a serious warning. It means the people who examined Vi’s books aren’t certain the company can meet its obligations as they fall due without government support or successful new fundraising. The company says it is confident of generating sufficient cash flows over the next twelve months, supported by the AGR clarity and its ongoing debt discussions. The market will be watching closely.
So Is This a Turnaround or Just Accounting?
Probably both, and that’s not a contradiction.
The ₹52,000 crore profit is accounting. It is a real change in Vi’s legal and financial obligations, but it is not operational cash. You can’t pay tower rental with it. You can’t buy radio equipment with it. For anyone assessing Vi as a going business, the number is almost beside the point.
But the underlying trajectory — rising ARPU, stabilising subscribers, expanding 5G, a promoter equity infusion, and a cleared AGR cloud — is genuine. For the first time in years, Vi’s quarterly story has more green in it than red, even if the headline numbers need to be read with extreme care.
India’s telecom market has room for three operators. The question has always been whether Vi would survive long enough to claim its spot in that three-player future. A year ago, that looked genuinely uncertain. Today, it looks slightly less so.
That’s not a ringing endorsement. But in Vi’s world, “slightly less dire” is worth noting.
The author is not a financial advisor. This is not investment advice.
