Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) has announced the launch of its 5G services in Chennai. With this launch, Vi 5G is now available across all five metro cities, in addition to 50 other cities strengthening its presence in India’s data markets.
Earlier, this month, the company had announced its plans to add 90 more cities nationwide. As part of its ongoing expansion plan, Vi will also extend 5G services to Coimbatore, Trichy, Salem, Tiruppur, Vellore and the union territory of Pondicherry by May 2026. This expansion is part of Vi’s broader 5G rollout strategy to expand footprint to 133 cities across 17 priority circles.
Under this plan, Vi is prioritising key markets including industrial hubs, high data consumption centres and emerging urban clusters in Tamil Nadu. The planned rollout reflects this approach, covering key industrial hubs such as Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruppur; an important healthcare and education hub like Vellore; Tiruchirappalli (Trichy), a major education and commercial centre; and Pondicherry – The French Riviera of the East
To support a superior 5G experience, Vi has partnered with Nokia to deploy advanced, energy-efficient infrastructure and has implemented artificial intelligence powered self-optimising networks to automatically optimise network performance.
Commenting on the announcement, circle business head, Tamil Nadu, Vi, said, “We are accelerating the expansion of Vi’s 5G network across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, strengthening our footprint across key markets in the state. The launch in Chennai, along with our existing presence in Madurai and upcoming rollouts in cities like Coimbatore, Trichy, Salem, Tiruppur and Vellore, marks an important step in this journey. Our investments in strengthening the network, combined with the growing adoption of our unlimited data plans like Vi Non-Stop Hero are driving strong growth in data consumption. We remain focused on delivering a superior network experience as we bring next-generation connectivity to more customers across the circle.”