Measures reportedly being mulled by the government to ease telecom industry’s stress and fundraising may give Vodafone Idea the much-needed breather, but structural issues undermining the sector can be fixed only with a ‘sizeable’ tariff increases for 4G prepaid customers, as per a note by Edelweiss.
It observed that as Vodafone Idea’s large liabilities are falling due, and given the impending launch of JioPhone Next (whose roll-out timeline has now been pushed to before Diwali), “the sooner the government measures as well as tariff hikes are rolled out, the better.” A moratorium on AGR and spectrum payments are reportedly among key relief measures being lined up.