Let Reliance Jio come, we are prepared to face the onslaught, says Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Mittal

It is going to be an interesting turn of events once Reliance Jio Infocomm gets launched. The market is flooded with 4G services and once Reliance’s Jio Infocomm gets rolled out, it tough competitor will be Bharti Airtel.

Bharti Airtel will too face pricing pressure as Jio is expected to bundle cheap devices but Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal said it is ready to face all challenges.

In an exclusive interview with ET, Mittal said he hoped that Reliance Industries, which owns Jio, will be prudent.

"Should we be concerned about Jio? I think we should be about all kinds of competition, be it Vodafone, Idea or Jio and yes, when Jio is coming in, one has to take it up very seriously," said Mittal.

"Let me say we are prepared to face the onslaught. We have a large pool of airwaves across bands. We have a very extensive network now... Airtel has committed.'16,000 crore this year, the largest capex ever,” added the 58-year-old chairman.

Meanwhile, Mittal said Reliance would also be careful.

"In this scenario, how do you think a price war will affect the health of the industry? We only hope that Reliance, which is very prudent and seeks returns for its shareholders and its investments, will be prudent but we will be being too optimistic if we say they won't have some price pressures. Ultimately, they are entering the market and will do something for acquiring market share. So, I hope it is within reason," Mittal said.

Meanwhile, Airtel is going all guns and flooding the market with 4G SIM cards.

"By March, Airtel would have deployed 70,000 base stations (BTS), which is once again the largest-ever deployment anywhere outside China," Mittal said.

Talking about net neutrality, Mittal said Bharti Airtel was committed to free access to internet and the zero-rating plan it initiated earlier this year was in conformity with this.

"In the US, net neutrality laws have permitted zero rating. The European Union has specifically allowed zero rating. However, if our country decided against it, we are perfectly comfortable with it," Mittal said. He added that zero-rating plans were meant to simply help smalltime entrepreneurs market themselves to customers.

(Image: Indiatimes)