Vodafone Idea (Vi) has been limping along as India’s third MNO and telco for five years now, sustained by its 4G base while hoping that its belated entry to 5G next month starting (with Mumbai) will at last arrest long term decline and perhaps instigate an upturn. Yet the company’s fate remains bound by its precarious finances, exacerbated by the loss of both scale and brand power, as it lags increasingly behind the market leaders, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio – both part of powerful conglomerates able to sustain long-term investments. This pressure has come to a head over the last year or so, as India’s telcos act to redress the country’s chronically low ARPUs that make it so much…