Bloomberg Originals24 min
The Billionaire Who Transformed India’s Telecom Market | Leaders with Francine Lacqua
Francine Lacqua, Sunil Bharti Mittal
Interview
- Sunil Mittal's business trajectory mirrors India's economic evolution, moving from a post-independence "License Raj" of protectionism and bureaucratic controls to a liberalized, consumer-driven global market.
- In 1992, Mittal recognized mobile telephony as a future opportunity, securing a license in 1994 and launching Bharti Airtel in 1995 in metropolitan markets.
- The 1991 economic reforms removed restrictive barriers, enabling a surge in private enterprise and allowing Mittal to scale from bicycle parts to becoming one of India's first major private telecom operators.
- In 2001, Reliance Infocom launched a price war with free calling and bundled handsets, creating an existential crisis for incumbents like Airtel; Mittal adopted a defensive "lie on the ground" strategy to survive the 1.5-year disruption.
- Following the 2016 launch of Reliance Jio, which utilized 4G technology to offer free data and voice, approximately $100 billion in standing investments by competitors were rendered useless, forcing market consolidation from ten private players to three.
- During the 2016 Jio disruption, Mittal raised $18 billion in capital over 34 months and reduced his personal equity stake from 51% to 25% to ensure Airtel's survival and liquidity.
- By 2026, Airtel ranks among the top three privately controlled businesses in India, operating in a market that remains one of the world's cheapest despite fierce competition.
- Mittal advocates for tariff hikes to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the wireless carrier industry in a market characterized by extreme price sensitivity.
- In a major geopolitical expansion, Airtel acquired Zain's African operations, instantly transforming the company into a multinational entity with presence in 16 countries, though initial misjudgments regarding the lack of a middle class in those markets required significant operational adjustments.
- Current private capital investment in India is projected at roughly $44 billion in 2025, representing a nearly seven-fold increase from 2006 levels.
- Mittal views the current shift toward protectionism and rising global trade barriers as a receding of the global market, noting that India has mitigated this risk by pursuing bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the US, EU, UK, UAE, Australia, and Japan.
- India is actively diversifying its supply chain away from total dependence on China, evidenced by India becoming the largest manufacturing hub for Apple phones, while maintaining neutral trade relations with both the US and China.
- Looking forward, Mittal identifies financial services, sovereign cloud computing, and data centers as the necessary evolution beyond traditional telecom services to maintain relevance.
- In 2020, Bharti Global invested $1 billion to rescue the bankrupt satellite operator OneWeb, later adding $500 million and merging it with Eutelsat to create a non-US, non-China Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation.
- Mittal identifies sovereign connectivity via LEO satellites as a critical future infrastructure need, driven by the necessity for countries to maintain independent communication networks during conflicts or natural disasters.
- The global space connectivity market is expected to consolidate into a limited number of major constellations due to high entry barriers, including $10 billion capital requirements and 7-8 year development cycles for satellite replacement.
- India has leapfrogged traditional hard infrastructure development by utilizing digital platforms like UPI for billions of daily transactions, delivering government subsidies directly to mobile devices, and expanding digital financial inclusion to rural populations.
- Mittal believes he could replicate his success starting today but acknowledges that his historical energy for rapid, high-risk execution (e.g., back-to-back 14-hour train journeys) is no longer available at his current age.