IMC 2017: Airtel's Sunil Mittal is ready to work with Mukesh Ambani for Digital India

Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal on Wednesday said the company will invest up to Rs 20,000 crore this year in digital infrastructure and hinted at a possible collaboration with arch rival Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio in the future. Mittal, who shared the dais with Mukesh Ambani at the India Mobile Congress, came out in favour of a collaborative approach to overcome challenges and unleash the growth potential of the sector. Mittal said the telecom industry is offering yeoman service and infusing large amounts of money in strengthening infrastructure.

Airtel will invest Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000 crore this year, he said, adding that the industry overall will be injecting Rs 50-60,000 crore to build digital infrastructure. "We have to collaborate and use common fiber and towers, and satellite projects are being implemented,'' Mittal said.

"We'll build something for the future together with Mukesh," he added, in what appears to be an olive branch for the first time amidst the cut-throat rivalry with Reliance Jio Infocomm. Now telecom sector with 3+1 players offers opportunity and India will emerge as a leading telecom market, Mittal said.

Seeking government's support in fast tracking the pace of growth and achieving India's vision, he urged states as well as municipalities to recognise the power of digital India and enable easy onground implementation of policies like the right of way. He said Airtel is rolling out massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology and India will be in step and head to head with what is happening globally.

Physical infrastructure has a limitation and it is the digital platform that government has picked up for India to transform, he added. "Government should come forward to help us in Right of Way (RoW) as permissions don't come easily while rolling out infrastructure," Mittal said.

Mukesh Ambani sees 4G users surpassing 2G in 1 year
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who has shaken up the telecom sector with his disruptive free voice calls and cheap data plans, on Wednesday said 4G telecom coverage in India will surpass that of 2G in a year. "Data is the oxygen of a digital economy. We have to provide ubiquitous access to highspeed data at affordable prices,'' Ambani said at the India Mobile Congress here.

Reliance Jio, his telecom upstart that has captured more than 128 million users within a year of launch, will this week launch a basic 4G phone that will be available to users on making a refundable deposit of Rs 1,500.

Ambani said, India has leapfrogged from a lowly 155th in mobile broadband penetration to being the world's largest mobile data consuming nation in just one year. He put down this jump largely to launch of Reliance Jio which during the promotional phase offered unlimited free data and after that at dirt cheap price, saying the pace at which the Indian mobile industry has grown is unparallelled in the world. Data is the new oil.

India does not need to import it. We have it in super-abundance. It will be a new source of value and will create opportunities and prosperity for India and millions of Indians. To realise the Digital India dream, investments have to be made in building next-generation technology assets, and inefficiencies across the digital ecosystem must be rooted out, he pointed out. We must break silos and forge partnerships.

"No corporate, nor the government, can do it alone. Together, we can achieve the unimaginable,'' he said. Since its launch, Jio has been locked in a bitter market place battle with older telecom players led by Bharti Airtel. The older firms have accused it of using deep pockets to disrupt the market to create monopoly. Let's not forget India provides a big enough opportunity for all of us to grow and prosper together. The opportunity to pave the path for our nation's progress and create a better quality of life for every Indian beckons us, Ambani said.