Policy support, fundraise may give Vodafone Idea relief but sizable tariff hike must: Edelweiss

New Delhi: 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 issue undermining the sector can be fixed only with “sizable” tariff hike for 4G prepaid customers, according to a note by Edelweiss. It further observed that as Voda Idea’s large liabilities are falling due, and given the impending launch of JioPhone Next (whose rollout timeline has now been pushed to before Diwali), “the sooner the government measures as well as tariff hikes are rolled out, the better it is”.

It is pertinent to mention here that the telecom sector has been keenly watching out for the relief package, which could include redefinition of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) to exclude non-telecom items,