Mukesh Ambani talks about his obsession with tech; competition with Airtel, Idea and why he took so much time to launch Reliance Jio

Ever since Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani launched Reliance Jio, there have been numerous questions about the viability of a host of offers, why he took so much time to commercially launch the services and how he is going to tackle competition from top telcos like Airtel and Idea.

Through Reliance Jio, Ambani realised his telecom dream and also upped the telecom war with the pricing and tariff data.

In an interview to The Times of India, Ambani spoke about his dreams, giving way to his children in the business and what made him announce everything free.

Venturing into telecom has been his dream forever and when asked about obsession, he said it was technology.

“I have always believed that technology drives human civilization's endeavour and progress. So if you ask what is my obsession, it is technology. In the 1970s it was technology in chemical engineering-- the whole question of building Reliance from a textile company to an energy major. I wanted to pursue chemical engineering, because I thought it was the future. It's the thought of future that drives me. My obsession is with technology and how it can improve human life,” said Ambani, adding “I wish I was 30 years old today. The opportunity in front of us today is huge.”

India’s richest man, Ambani, said 50 years from now when history will be written, one technology that would have changed human civilization is going to be the mobile internet.

“We saw mobile internet as the winning horse before anybody else did. The mobile internet has won the world over. Companies that had bet on mobile internet have created the largest value in the last 10 years,” said Ambani.

“We are not an old world telecom company,” said Ambani.

Talking about the Indian telecom industry, Ambani said Indians should not accept the fact India is 155th in the world out of 230 countries in broadband and mobile internet access.

“For us and the next generation, this has to be unacceptable. The important thing is to figure out what we can do to correct the situation today. Jio will enable India to be among the top 10 countries in broadband and internet access within the next few years,” said Jio.

When asked about what had changed from the time he had launched a telecom brand to Jio, Ambani said, “We will do everything that we can to create customer value. That is why we have made a commitment that 90% of Indians should be able to access Jio services over the next few months--by around March next year. I think it just depends on how much value we create for the customer. If we create value for you, we deserve to be a brand.”

During his AGM, Ambani had nudged top telecom players to provide an interconnection point. Lately, the operators like Airtel, Idea said they are not obliged to do so.

“We have an opportunity to lead India into this digital world. I have the greatest respect for Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and all other operators who have connected the entire country. Today the Jio network is experiencing call failures. It's essential that incumbent power is not used to deny new technology to consumers. It's like saying that because you are a dominant person, you violate traffic lights. You can be let off once or twice, maybe. But in the long run, you cannot take violation of legal license obligations lightly,” said Ambani.

That said, how is he going to provide free calls? The idea struck when at a Brown University function, he met the CEO of Verizon and he had said, "Oh in your country you still charge for voice? We stopped doing that long ago." This was 2014.

“I believe that if you create societal value, if you create customer value and employee value, and if you focus on these, then shareholder and economic return is a by-product. I don't chase businesses for profits. I chase businesses for value and that's why I look at technology. I don't want to speculate (on revenues and profits) primarily due to governance standards. We cannot tell any one individual about our financial projections. So, we are looking at a high teens return on our capital. And high teens is pretty good at this size. We are pretty confident we will achieve that,” he said.

One of the questions that dominated everyone’s mind was the delay in launching Reliance Jio.

“We needed the 850 MHz spectrum, which we got only in end of July. It took us a few weeks to optimize the spectrum. That gave us flawless indoor coverage across the cities,” he said.

At the AGM, Ambani also said his children, Isha and Akash Ambani, will be the future.

“I spoke about them in the context of the next generation at RIL. It's our endeavour to keep average age of leadership at RIL in the mid-40s and the average age of employees at 30. We are extremely excited about the hunger of young talent we are bringing into the company. I think that generation, of which Isha and Akash are part of, is 10x better than mine. We need to give them an opportunity to realize their full potential,” said Ambani.

We should not forget that Anil Ambani is heading Reliance Communications and there can be a possibility of Jio sharing the same level with his brother’s company.

“I am personally happy that we have put the past behind us and our relationship on the family level is very cordial. As far as businesses, we are separate, and fundamentally, we would work with all players. We're doing the same with Bharti, Vodafone and Idea,” said Ambani.