Airtel to Maintain Top Rank In Indian Mobile Space: Mittal
Barcelona (PTI): Complimenting rival Vodafone for its rapid ascent to the number two slot among Indian mobile operators, market leader Bharti Airtel on Thursday said it would, however, pretty much stay there.
“I will say that (Vodafone CEO) Arun Sarin has already won his quarter-final and semi-final matches, as Vodafone has emerged as the number two cellular operator in India. But his final match is with us and I am sure to win that,” Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal told PTI at the GSM Mobile Congress here.
Vodafone, one of the world’s largest mobile operators, entered the Indian mobile telephony space last year through acquisition of majority stake in Hutchison-Essar, then the country’s fourth biggest operator in terms of subscribers.
Bharti Airtel is India’s number one GSM cellular player with a subscriber base of over 60 million, followed by Vodafone with 41.14 million mobile users as on January 31.
Vodafone is still some distance away from Airtel’s subscriber base, Mittal said while giving credit to Sarin for his vision to become the top player wherever he goes.
After the India acquisition, Sarin had said his aim was to increase the company’s user-base to 100 million at the earliest and had recently announced an investment of two billion dollar annually for the next three years to reach every nook and cranny of the country.
It is always a challenge to compete with players like Vodafone, Mittal said, adding that “whenever we face competition from strong players like Vodafone, Airtel has emerged even stronger and consolidated its position to be number one player.”
