It was a statement of the blindingly obvious that Vodafone is unable to float its Indian subsidiary on the local stock market this financial year, but it is a disappointment nonetheless. The entry of Reliance Jio into the Indian market, offering free trials, will distort that market for months.
This is not a complete disaster. The Indian mobile phone market continues to grow, with only about half the 1.3 billion population possessing a device. It is a fair bet that a number of those new Jio customers will have taken the free service but will continue to be signed up to Vodafone and the other telecoms providers.
The new service has only operated from the start of September and will have had negligible impact on