Vodafone-Idea Cellular Merged Entity Will Pose a Serious Threat to Bharti Airtel

The Indian telecom industry is currently going through some insane changes, both in terms of tariff plans and marketing, everything has changed after the commercial launch of Reliance Jio. Yes, the brainchild of Mukesh Ambani has changed the entire scenario of the telecom sector in India and feeling the pressure are country’s top three telecom operators- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Idea Cellular.

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Recently Reliance Jio has crossed 100 million subscriber mark in just 170 days and was also rated as the fastest growing telecom operator across the globe. As of now, Bharti Airtel is the leading telecom operator in India with over 269 million GSM subscribers, which is followed by Indian units of Vodafone and Idea with 205 million and 193 million subscribers.

Last month, Vodafone confirmed that they are in talks with Idea Cellular for a merger in the country and a recent report also claimed that both the companies entered final stages of talks for a possible merger and the merger will soon become official. That said, the merged entity of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular pose a serious threat to India’s leading operator, Bharti Airtel in several scenarios.

If the merger happens between the India’s second and third largest telecom operators, Airtel will be dethroned as the leading telecom operator. To be precise, Vodafone India has 206,436,412 customers, whereas Idea Cellular has 192,062,999 consumers as of January 2017 data released by COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India). The combined entity will have nearly 398 million subscribers, and it is almost 50 percent of the market share as India’s total GSM subscribers reached 815 million by the end of January 2017.