A tough call for Voda Idea: Will it survive the test of time, competition?

With competitive pressures ruling out a tariff hike and relief on dues unlikely, the debt-ridden telecom service provider's options for survival are narrowing

Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) CEO Ravin­der Takkar did some plain speaking. In an analyst call after its quarterly results last week, Takkar said that the main stumbling block to raising fresh capital from investors is “pricing” — telecom tariffs, in other words.

Nine months ago, the telecom company’s board had cleared a proposal for raising Rs 25,000 crore from investors, after the promoters made it clear that they were not ready to pump in more money. But potential investors are concerned that without clarity on tariff hikes (there have been none for more than 18 months) they might just lose their