Can Vodafone Idea survive?

The biggest hurdle in the way of its long-term survival will be 5G, which has changed the telecom landscape and made it the weakest player in the sector

In the past two weeks, India’s beleaguered telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) seems to have got a little more breathing space. The Government of India has cleared the long-talked-about plan to convert Rs 16,000 crore interest from the deferred adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues into equity. This would make the Union government the biggest shareholder in Vi — holding about 33 per cent of the telecom firm.

Though the scheme to allow interest on AGR dues to be converted into equity was announced quite a while ago — and Vi had shown interest — the government was going slow. It wanted