Bloomberg Originals

The Billionaire Who Transformed India’s Telecom Market | Leaders with Francine Lacqua

Francine Lacqua, Sunil Bharti Mittal

Bharti Airtel founder Sunil Mittal navigated India's telecom sector through two disruptive eras, surviving Reliance's 2001 price war and the 2016 Jio disruption by securing $18 billion in capital and consolidating a ten-player market into three dominant operators. Beyond domestic dominance, Mittal expanded Airtel into a multinational entity across 16 African nations and pioneered sovereign connectivity by merging OneWeb and Eutelsat into a non-aligned Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation. Looking ahead, he advocates for tariff hikes to ensure industry sustainability while positioning Bharti Global to lead the evolution toward financial services and data centers in a shifting global trade landscape.