Mr. Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel, speaking at the mobile world congress in Barcelona, echoed our words about the business viability of new GSM players in India. Mr. Mittal said,
All new players will collapse within 36 months. These firms will take at least 12 months to build their network and 24 months after that they will struggle to survive in the market. I feel it does not make a viable position. Who buys them or not, after 36 months is not clear…our position is that please don’t give spectrum to anybody at the cost of our (existing players) growth path.
At the same conference, Mr. Arun Sarin earlier said that he is willing to BUY wireless spectrum at additional cost. Just to clarify, new entrants will not include Reliance GSM nor Tata GSM [if at all Tata comes out of the flip-flop state]. Mr. Mittal was also conferred upon the GSMA Chairman’s Award 2008. Mr. Mittal had another feather in his cap today as Bharti Airtel reached the 60 million customers milestone. Congratulations to Mr. Mittal!
Tags: Mobile India, Telecom,Wireless India, Mobile World Congress
Disclosure: Through various means we hold and have interest in Reliance Communications stock.