The Rs 1.5 Lakh Crore Gambit: Will Jio Disrupt The TMT Space?

Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal face off yet again as gladiators in the latest telecom war where control over data and content will be decisive By Sutanu Guru.

- Sutanu Guru

Thirteen years ago in April 2003, Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, in an interview to a television news channel, made a grand pronouncement: “CDMA (based) WLL service has won...CDMA-GSM war is over.” Reliance was then getting ready for the controversial rollout of its mobile phone services. Existing players like Bharti Airtel, the market leader then, were up in arms, with its promoter chairman Sunil Mittal leading the charge against Reliance. The battle was fought in media, in the offices of the telecom regulator, in the corridors of power and went right up to the Prime Minister’s Office. It was an ugly war. The war was over nearly 50 million mobile subscribers and a less than $10-billion market.

Thirteen years down the road, as Ambani prepares to roll out the ambitious 4G network via Reliance Jio, yet another ugly war seems to have erupted in the telecom sector. Back in 2003, existing players like Airtel had accused the regulator and the government of showing undue favour to Reliance and allowing it to make a ‘back door’ entry into the high growth telecom sector. The same complaints are being heard on a daily basis all over again (see related story). This time, the war is over more than a billion subscribers and a $100-billion market, as well as control over the market for data and data related services. This time again, the main fight is between Airtel’s Mittal and Ambani.