Airtel and Jio Might End Up With 80% of the Telecom Market in 12 to 18 Months: Sunil Mittal

India’s top two telecom operators, namely Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel might end up with 80% market share in the next 12 to 18 months believes Sunil Mittal, founder and Chairperson of Bharti Enterprises. In a report shared by Goldman Sachs, Sunil Mittal has expressed that from the current 75%, the top two operators in India can gain up to 80% of the market share in the coming time. Mittal also expressed his views on investing in subsidised smartphones and said that it would just be draining the company money. More details on the story ahead.

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Bharti Airtel Looking to Convert Payments Bank License to Small Finance Bank

Mittal revealed to Goldman Sachs that Airtel is pushing to upgrade its Payments Bank license into Small Finance Bank license. This would help the telco in accepting larger sums of money (at the moment restricted to $1,500) and also enable money lending service to users. He further said that because of the current payment services, Airtel has been able to reduce the churn of mobile customers.

Talking about the low-end smartphones, Mittal said that the investment on the devices wouldn’t be justified in the long term. This is particularly because of the low average revenue per user (ARPUs) and high churn rate of mobile customers. He said that Jio doesn’t pose a huge threat with its low-end smartphone and 5G services launch since it will take some years for the 5G in the Indian market to mature.