Sunil Bharti Mittal Warns, a Consolidation is around the Corner

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Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal admits that Reliance Jio’s launch will result in a big shake-up in the telecom sector. In his first interview after Mukesh Ambani’s ambitious Jio launch, admits Jio is a tough rival but Bharti Airtel is well prepared to take it on.

Though Jio’s data-push is a big thumbs-up, Mittal added that offering things for free can’t be considered as an innovation. Jio’s tariff plans were in expected lines, however adding voice to the data and offering it for free was something of a surprise. This will result in a big consolidation and the small players will struggle to cope up with the onslaught.

Airtel - A Product of Competition:

The chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal expects that his company will emerge stronger as it is a product of competition. We have come across technologies 2G, 3G and 4G. And we are the first to launch 4G in India in 2012. Despite strong competition, we are being referred as the No: 1 company in the telecom industry. Mr Mittal added that starting from AT&T, Hutchinson, Telenor to Idea and Vodafone, Airtel has been fighting on daily basis and is ready to play this market very aggressively.

Reliance Jio-Airtel Spat - Point of Interconnect:

Commenting on the row over Point of Interconnect (PoIs), all issues will be resolved within a few weeks. Unnecessarily, PoI’s has become a big issue. There needs to be a dialogue between all companies to correct the issues. And even added, Airtel would be pro-active in trying to settle these issues. However, Reliance Jio added that 10 crore calls failing daily for not providing adequate interconnection points. Hope TRAI would be looking in to this issue soon.

What’s Your Take?

Do you think Bharti Airtel with its wide spectrum coverage and customer focus footprint will be able to take on Reliance Jio? Or will it yield market share?