On Thursday, Sunil Mittal, President of Bharti Airtel, said that the Indian telecommunications industry is now down to almost 2.5 as a single player has become more and more of “a question mark.”
Mittal also added that Airtel has weathered three-four major crises, including the disruption of the Jio launch in 2016, and has emerged stable from business difficulties.
Speaking at Amazon Smbhav, Mittal said that Airtel had previously had seen ‘several close-to-death experience’ and that it was a business that would prosper in crisis too. From three-four major crises Airtel has emerged stronger and has reached a very stable condition, he added.
‘…and of course last, the recent one 2016 the launch of Jio, as one of the most powerful competitors in Indian space, free service for a year, subsidised service for another year, predatory pricing, subsidised phones, all sorts of things, and there is no surprise that 9 of the 12 operators packed up, went bankrupt, merged with us or with each other,’ Mittal said
Without taking names, he went on to add: ‘And today we are down to three private sector operators, in which very clearly one operator is becoming increasingly a question mark. So for a country of our size of 1.3 billion people, we are now down to nearly 2.5 operators…and the last test we have passed again very well’.
With Mittal’s words, the old industry debate about the possibility of nearly duopoly could theoretically revive.
Bharti Airtel was caught up in a heated struggle for a major part of the fast-growing Indian market with India’s youngest and largest telecompany, Reliance Jio.
While both players have steadfastly added customers, invested heavily in networks and strengthened their reach, Vodafone Idea has been hit by customer churns and low realisation in the past several months.
The 4th telecoms player is owned by state-owned BSNL/MTNL, apart from the three operators.
‘We have added new lines of businesses, we have accelerated our Fibre to Home, many many hundreds of thousands of new homes are being connected every month. Data centres business has come through.
‘Our enterprise business is now clearly the leading edge business in marketplace. The DTH business has taken a lead over Dish which used to be largest DTH operator in market place,‘ Mittal said.
He said that Airtel Payments bank, the ‘newest infant’ party, is making rural and tier two to three cities inroads.
Mittal said India, which will develop its growth in industry, digital upliftment and self-reliance, will be a big economy in the next 5-10 years.
Indeed, its huge customer market uses more goods, services and data and its young people contribute to GDP and usage history, he said, represents a great opportunity for companies.
India attracts enormous FDIs and, Mittal observed, ‘is the place to be.’
‘Most people are shifting their business from China to India which would mean more manufacturing coming here, more development coming here, more innovation coming here and in next 5-10 years it is my belief that India will be a major economy, where we will have had industrial upliftment, digital upliftment and importantly more of self reliant and stronger India in the hands of Indians,’ Mittal said.
Mittal also urged young businesses to make most of the advantage.