New GSM players will collapse in 3 yrs: Sunil Mittal

Forecasting a gloomy future for telecom sector aspirants, top mobile operator Bharti Airtel today said that all the new players will "collapse" within three years.

"All new players will collapse within 36 months. These firms will take at least 12 months to build their network and 24 months after that they will struggle to survive in the market. I feel it does not make a viable position," Bharti Group Chairman and CEO Sunil Mittal told PTI at GSM Mobile Congress.

Mittal's almost echoed the views of Vodafone, whose CEO Arun Sarin had yesterday said that only one or two new players would remain in the arena and consolidation process will start in the telecom sector.

He also desired to buy spectrum from the market in case if it did not get the additional frequency from the government.

"Who buys them or not, after 36 months is not clear... our position is that please don't give spectrum to anybody at the cost of our (existing players) growth path," Mittal said.

Bharti Airtel has achieved 60 million subscriber base (both mobile and fixed) and one billion minutes of traffic is going through its network per day.

Subscribers @ 60 mn
NewsWire18 adds: Bharti Airtel today said its subscriber base has crossed the 60 million mark, catapulting it to the league of the top mobile operators in the world in terms of user numbers.

The number includes mobile, fixed line, and broadband customers, a release issued by the company said today.

"This is a major milestone in our journey towards the 100 million customer-mark and gives the company global scale," President and Chief Executive Officer Manoj Kohli said.

"Over the last few months, we have recorded phenomenal customer growth. We are fully committed to taking our network deeper into rural India," he added.