Airtel Emerged as a Strong Institution, Says Sunil Mittal: Report

Airtel has come a long way and emerged as the only telecom company to survive the disruptive competition in the market. According to Sunil Mittal, the chairman of Bharti Airtel, the company has successfully navigated through intense competition in 2003, the Supreme Court’s AGR verdict in 2020, and the impact of Reliance Jio’s launch in 2016. Despite facing these challenges, Bharti Airtel has emerged as a national asset, shared Sunil Bharti Mittal, the chairman of the Bharti Group, in an interview with ET Telecom.

• Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
• 
• 

Also Read: Airtel Payments Bank With 56 Million Customers Will Shine a Lot, Says Sunil Mittal: Report

Transformational Deals

Sunil Mittal shared that 2003 was a challenging period when the competitive intensity became rough, and a lot has happened since 2005. He said Airtel was also young then and came strongly from there. The company has done transformational deals with IBM, Nokia and Ericsson at the time and got recognised as a trailblazer in telecommunications.

Technological Advancements in Industry

The telecommunications industry has witnessed significant technological advancements since 2005, shifting from voice and SMS services to a fully digital ecosystem characterised by a data-driven approach. The biggest challenges have been on the technology front, he shared. Bharti Airtel’s 5G is available in over 500 cities with the latest announcement of 5G in Ladakh.

Also Read: Airtel Payments Bank Deposits Grew by 50% Over Last Year

The Tide of Events

“Airtel survived the 2016 tsunami is a testament to the exceptional transformation of the company into an institution. While Airtel faced existential crises in 2003 and the 2020 Supreme Court verdict on AGR, the changes brought by the 2016 tsunami were not such. Airtel has successfully done so by transforming into a digital ecosystem-led telecom industry from a voice and SMS-led one,” Sunil Mittal shared. “Some parts of the 2016 events were good. I would say acceleration of data revolution, affordability, and proliferation of much bigger networks.”