Tragic if India Reduced to Two-Player Telecom Market: Sunil Mittal

On Tuesday, Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal spoke at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday. At the forum, he said that it would be tragic if India becomes a two-player telecom market.

India Becoming a Duopoly - Sunil Mittal

The Bharti founder alluded to the loss-making Vodafone Idea’s continuing struggle for survival without directly naming the telco. Vodafone Idea has tried to raise ₹25,000 crore in various fundraisers. However, so far, Vodafone Idea has made little to no progress in plans it announced back in September last year. The telco has not closed any deals after talking to numerous potential investors.

Mittal said, "we are already down to 2.5 operators from 12 earlier, and if India goes down to just two operators, that will be tragic as the country being a very large one deserves to have three private sector players, and I hope we end up with that situation".

However, he said that Airtel is rapidly getting stronger. He added that it has gained market share and has also bolstered its position in markets like Africa. Mittal also reported investments in Airtel, saying, "Bharti has already raised $12 billion over the past 24 months, and though one can never say never to raising fresh capital, there is nothing immediately in the pipeline".

OneWeb - The Crowning Jewel

Talking about Bharti-UK backed OneWeb, he said it will be "a game changer, and would complement" Airtel’s growth ambitions. He said that OneWeb will connect people that were beyond reach of normal telco, with space internet.

OneWeb will roll out satellite internet services in India from June 2022. It has recently applied for a GMPCS or `global mobile personal communications by satellite services' permit to DoT.

OneWeb will also lease a sizable part of its satellite bandwidth capacity to offer cellular backhaul connectivity services to Airtel. This will allow the telco to offer 4G coverage in the most remote areas of the country. He said, "half of the world is still offline, which is a matter of shame, but in my nearly 28 years in telecom, I have never seen a technology (like LEO satcoms) that’s on the cutting edge to serve remote and rural communication needs".

He also said, "it’s important to get into new businesses as many companies that previously thought they won’t ever disappear have gone off the face of the business charts for not staying relevant".