Vi Expands 5G to Malda, Haldia, and Berhampur in West Bengal; Darjeeling and Gangtok Next in Line
Vi currently holds mid-band 5G spectrum in 17 circles and mmWave spectrum in 16 circles nationally, giving it the spectral foundation to offer meaningful 5G performance where it does choose to deploy.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) is expanding its 5G footprint across West Bengal, with services now live in Malda, Haldia, and Berhampur, and launches planned across seven more cities by June. The rollout follows Vi's earlier 5G launches in Kolkata and Siliguri, bringing the operator's total planned 5G city count in the state to 10.
The cities lined up for activation before the end of June are Durgapur, Asansol, Habra-Ashoknagar, Burdwan, Kharagpur, Gangtok, and Darjeeling. The selection reflects a deliberate mix of industrial centres, commercial hubs, and tourism-driven markets, each chosen on the basis of data consumption demand and footfall density.
The strategic logic behind the city selection is worth noting. Durgapur and Asansol are among the largest industrial clusters in eastern India, with significant enterprise and manufacturing presence that generates sustained demand for high-throughput connectivity. Haldia is a major port and petrochemical hub where industrial operations increasingly depend on reliable data infrastructure. Habra-Ashoknagar and Burdwan represent densely populated urban clusters with growing middle-class data consumption. Kharagpur, home to IIT Kharagpur and a sizeable residential and commercial base, rounds out the tier-two urban coverage. Gangtok and Darjeeling, the two tourism-driven additions, speak to a different use case entirely: high-footfall locations where visitor and hospitality sector demand for fast connectivity is concentrated but seasonal.
Sovan Mukherjee, Business Head for Kolkata, Rest of Bengal, Assam, and North-East at Vodafone Idea, said the expansion is guided by a clear focus on high-demand locations spanning industrial, commercial, and tourism hubs, with the goal of delivering a consistent and enhanced network experience.
For Vi, the West Bengal expansion carries significance beyond the state itself. The operator has been navigating a prolonged period of financial pressure and subscriber attrition relative to Airtel and Jio, and its 5G rollout has been slower and more geographically selective as a result. Expanding into a mix of tier-two industrial cities and high-profile tourism destinations in a state with over 100 million people signals that Vi is prioritising revenue-generating clusters over broad geographic coverage, a pragmatic approach given its resource constraints.
Vi currently holds mid-band 5G spectrum in 17 circles and mmWave spectrum in 16 circles nationally, giving it the spectral foundation to offer meaningful 5G performance where it does choose to deploy. Whether the pace of deployment accelerates beyond West Bengal will depend on the financial trajectory of the operator in the quarters ahead.
Published By : Shubham Verma
Published On: 21 May 2026 at 15:41 IST