Most regulators still live in "analogue world", India's telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal said today, nudging them to allow consolidation while underlining that a large number of operators does not ensure greater competition.Large countries only need three service providers while smaller nations could be covered by two carriers, he said.
The comments come days after his company, Bharti Airtel announced acquisition of Norwegian company Telenor's India unit. Also, its smaller rivals Vodafone and Idea Cellular are considering merging."Governments have got it wrong for too long. Regulators have always felt giving out new licences means more money for the government and more competition for the customers. It's quite the contrary," he said delivering a keynote address at the Mobile World Congress here. The Airtel Chairman said one doesn't want a situation where there are one or two "healthy" operators, while another similar number struggle while other "three or four are in the ICU"
"You really want a few sustainable solid operators, who can put out the investments that are required to deal with the new technologies, demand of data, the speeds that you want. It's extremely important that the regulators re-calibrate demand," he said. Mittal cited examples from the US and Europe and said these issues are of concern to the telecom industry globally.
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