Bharti Airtel president and CEO, Manoj Kohli, has predicted widespread consolidation will occur in India’s mobile industry over the next three years.
Kohli noted in his keynote speech at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress on Tuesday that India – the world’s second largest market in terms of subscribers – is also one of the most competitive with “double-digit” operator competition. However, in a later interview with the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress Show Daily, he forecast that consolidation among operators could see the market reduced to five or six players. This year has already seen major international mobile operators such as Etisalat, Telenor and DoCoMo enter India and further new market entrants are likely to emerge via India’s 3G spectrum auction, which is scheduled to close early next year.

He added that Bharti Airtel – India’s largest mobile operator – is well placed to lead this consolidation, noting that the company is debt free and currently building market share. As well as domestic expansion, Kohli said he was still eyeing what he called a “big transformation acquisition” that could see Bharti expand into either Africa, the Middle East or elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region. “If opportunities come onto our radar we will definitely explore the options,” he said. Bharti called off merger talks with the pan-African mobile group MTN earlier this year after failing to reach a deal.