Customers may have to pay the price as telecom industry consolidates

Consolidation, after Reliance Jio's entry and the price war, has shrunk the number of players from a peak of 16 to just 4

As India stares at the possibility of becoming a three-player mobile telecom market in case Vodafone-Idea shuts operations, questions have been raised on whether this will lead to concentration of pricing power and if this will be detrimental for consumers in the long run.

Bharti Airtel chief executive officer (CEO) Gopal Vittal just last week said publicly that India should have three private mobile service providers (excluding BSNL-MTNL) as it was good from all perspectives — investments, jobs and reputation of the industry.

He is not off the mark if global trends are anything to go by.  Emerging markets across