India Witnessed Unprecedented Market Disruption Following Jio Entry, but Airtel Managed to Up Revenue Market Share: Sunil Mittal

India saw unprecedented market disruption following the entry of an extremely well capitalised and aggressive new operator [Reliance Jio], Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal said in the company’s annual report for 2016-2017. Mittal said that the new telco’s prolonged free trial offers created massive pressure on industry revenues and margins.

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Sunil Mittal

Mittal, however, said that Airtel on its part navigated this extraordinary challenge with a well thought strategic action plan and of course, sheer resilience. Amidst this massive industry shake-up, the telecom operator managed to increase its revenue market share to reach a lifetime high.

“Many small operators lost their bearings under the intense onslaught and consequently prepared to exit the market,” he said.

Mittal added, “the shake-up also triggered an industry-wide consolidation process, which we believe could prove beneficial for the market in the long run.”

Airtel during the last fiscal year witnessed considerable strengthening of its spectrum footprint both through buying at the latest round of auction and inorganic acquisitions. Besides completing the acquisition of spectrum from Videocon and Aircel in fourteen circles, Airtel also entered into definitive agreements to acquire Telenor India and Tikona Digital Networks.

“With these acquisitions, Airtel became the only operator in the country to have a robust pan India 2G/3G/4G spectrum footprint. Proactive rollouts during the year made Airtel the only operator in the country with 2G, 3G, and 4G services in all 22 circles,” Mittal said.

Airtel rolled out 180,000 mobile sites in the past two years, making it one of the largest network rollouts globally. The telco doubled its transmission capacity and increased mobile backhaul capacity by eight times.