‘It’s been a world war’: Sunil Bharti Mittal says Indian telecom sector has been a real battleground
Sunil Bharti Mittal said he was of the view that Airtel did not have the resources to “match anywhere” close to Jio. He believed it would be for the best if they lied low and let the storm pass.
- Nov 11, 2026,
- Updated Nov 11, 2026 1:01 PM IST
Telecom in India has been a real battleground with one war after another, said Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises. Mittal spoke of the tough years, right after Reliance disrupted the telecom industry with the launch of Jio. He said Jio’s primary rival, Airtel, went through an existential crisis.
In the latest edition of the ‘Leaders with Francine Lacqua’ podcast, Mittal said, “Telecom has been a real battleground. In India, if you look at the trajectory of telecom, it's been a world war. It's just never stopped. It's been relentless.”
He said Airtel had become a major player by 2001-2002, when there were two-three other major players. “And then comes "mother of all" – a big launch by Reliance at that time – and the market shook very badly, including us. It was an existential crisis,” he said in the interview.
Mittal said he was of the view that Airtel did not have the resources to “match anywhere” close to Jio. He believed it would be for the best if they lied low and let the storm pass. “And it did. It took a year and a half of a very difficult period. There was not a question of if, the question was when will we go out of business? But we came out of it very well,” he said.
The industrialist also said that a lot of employees at Airtel were attempted to be poached but only two left. “I still remember their names,” he said.
Mittal said 2016 was a “big one” and a “lot of companies disappeared”. “I would say about $100 billion of investment, standing investments were rendered useless,” he said, adding that Airtel made its move at that time by buying a lot of companies and a lot of spectrum from a lot of companies.
“And I knew one thing, that if we can be the last man standing in this town, we will become a very valuable company. So we went down, our stock price went down to 20 per cent of where it was, and there at the time we needed to raise more capital. I raised $18 billion in 34 months, against all odds. I had to shed a lot of my personal stake from 51 per cent, I came down to 25 per cent,” he said.
When asked if that was a hard decision, Mittal said it did not matter to him. “In the end for me, my success is how the company survives, how the company stays on the course. And I must say once again, the people of Airtel, they were not bothered. I was under stress, maybe my board was, some shareholders were, but not the company. They knew that they would fight this out,” he said.
Mittal said Airtel became a multinational company “overnight”. They suddenly had “15 more countries strapped onto” them. He acknowledged that he would not do it again now. “We were crazy at that time. I mean, I wouldn't do it today,” he said.
There were a lot of dissimilarities between India and Africa, he said they found out after entering the African market. “At that time, we were happy to take the big risk and it did create difficulties. We misjudged. There were a lot of dissimilarities between India and Africa. Our view was you put towers, people come. You create more coverage, you create, put phones in the hands of people, they will use. In Africa, in most of the countries, what we missed out was, there was no middle class. We lowered the prices, they saved money, they didn't spend on phones. I think we missed that. But finally we got there. I mean, today Africa is a great success story,” he said.
Mittal explained that India is still not very forgiving of failures, which is something Asian markets in general need to learn. “I always say in my first phase, first 10-12 years, I bet the house many times. So from taking risks, you start to manage risk. But there's also a border there where it goes into risk aversion. That's, that's where you have to avoid being. Large companies should be able to put billions of dollars of capital at risk to grow into new lines of businesses, innovation, new things,” he said.
Telecom in India has been a real battleground with one war after another, said Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises. Mittal spoke of the tough years, right after Reliance disrupted the telecom industry with the launch of Jio. He said Jio’s primary rival, Airtel, went through an existential crisis.
In the latest edition of the ‘Leaders with Francine Lacqua’ podcast, Mittal said, “Telecom has been a real battleground. In India, if you look at the trajectory of telecom, it's been a world war. It's just never stopped. It's been relentless.”
He said Airtel had become a major player by 2001-2002, when there were two-three other major players. “And then comes "mother of all" – a big launch by Reliance at that time – and the market shook very badly, including us. It was an existential crisis,” he said in the interview.
Mittal said he was of the view that Airtel did not have the resources to “match anywhere” close to Jio. He believed it would be for the best if they lied low and let the storm pass. “And it did. It took a year and a half of a very difficult period. There was not a question of if, the question was when will we go out of business? But we came out of it very well,” he said.
The industrialist also said that a lot of employees at Airtel were attempted to be poached but only two left. “I still remember their names,” he said.
Mittal said 2016 was a “big one” and a “lot of companies disappeared”. “I would say about $100 billion of investment, standing investments were rendered useless,” he said, adding that Airtel made its move at that time by buying a lot of companies and a lot of spectrum from a lot of companies.
“And I knew one thing, that if we can be the last man standing in this town, we will become a very valuable company. So we went down, our stock price went down to 20 per cent of where it was, and there at the time we needed to raise more capital. I raised $18 billion in 34 months, against all odds. I had to shed a lot of my personal stake from 51 per cent, I came down to 25 per cent,” he said.
When asked if that was a hard decision, Mittal said it did not matter to him. “In the end for me, my success is how the company survives, how the company stays on the course. And I must say once again, the people of Airtel, they were not bothered. I was under stress, maybe my board was, some shareholders were, but not the company. They knew that they would fight this out,” he said.
Mittal said Airtel became a multinational company “overnight”. They suddenly had “15 more countries strapped onto” them. He acknowledged that he would not do it again now. “We were crazy at that time. I mean, I wouldn't do it today,” he said.
There were a lot of dissimilarities between India and Africa, he said they found out after entering the African market. “At that time, we were happy to take the big risk and it did create difficulties. We misjudged. There were a lot of dissimilarities between India and Africa. Our view was you put towers, people come. You create more coverage, you create, put phones in the hands of people, they will use. In Africa, in most of the countries, what we missed out was, there was no middle class. We lowered the prices, they saved money, they didn't spend on phones. I think we missed that. But finally we got there. I mean, today Africa is a great success story,” he said.
Mittal explained that India is still not very forgiving of failures, which is something Asian markets in general need to learn. “I always say in my first phase, first 10-12 years, I bet the house many times. So from taking risks, you start to manage risk. But there's also a border there where it goes into risk aversion. That's, that's where you have to avoid being. Large companies should be able to put billions of dollars of capital at risk to grow into new lines of businesses, innovation, new things,” he said.