'Good friends' Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal indulge in spirit of bonhomie

NEW DELHI: The acrimony between telecom giants Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm was set aside for a while at an industry conference when their heads Sunil Mittal and Mukesh Ambani acknowledged each other as 'good friends' and indulged in a spirit of bonhomie that has been missing from India's telecom sector for a year.

Speaking at the India Mobile Congress in New Delhi on Wednesday, Mittal said that despite competition, both carriers have to come together to build a better ecosystem. They shook hands as well, with Mittal even giving Ambani a friendly pat.

"I hope with friends like Mukesh, we will build something in the future," said the chairman of India's largest telco. His quotes from William Wordsworth's poem 'The Prelude' - 'Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!' - added to the mood.

Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, the parent of Jio, referred to Mittal as his "good friend" in his speech.

Mittal also acknowledged Ambani when he said that making India a leading telecom player has to be a joint effort.

"We all have to come together. While we compete head on for the benefit of customers, we have to collaborate among ourselves," Mittal said, referring to how consortiums are running ecosystems, towers, fibres, submarine cables and even satellite projects.

When Mittal mentioned the investments his company was making to improve infrastructure, he added, "Mukesh is putting up lot of investments" as well.

The camaraderie was a sharp contrast to the bitterness between the two rivals over the past year, not missing an opportunity to blame each other for misleading customers, misinterpreting laws, discriminating against subscribers and protesting to the authorities about issues such as points of interconnection, predatory pricing and interconnection usage charges.

It started when Jio entered the market last September with six months of free voice and data, which forced incumbents to lower their tariffs to retain customers. The low data tariffs offered by Jio from April triggered disputes over issues such as interconnection and data speeds. And now that the regulator has cut interconnection usage charges, telcos are alleging it was done to favour Jio, which it has denied.

The spirit of bonhomie between Ambani and Mittal did not go unnoticed.

"As long as you and Ambani continue to refer to each other as friends, industry will be okay," Rajan Mathews, president of the Cellular Operators Association of India, said, much to the amusement of the audience.

Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, too, joined in, saying that he has no doubt that the "little competition" between Mittal and Ambani will be sorted out soon since it is all part of business.

The condition of the struggling telecom sector and the rivalry among operators came up on many occasions.

"It is a business and competition is healthy. Hope that they (Ambani and Mittal) will work together," telecom minster Manoj Sinha said.

However, at another panel discussion, the hostility towards Jio was quite apparent.

"No one is talking about the elephant in the room - it has to be addressed," said Himanshu Kapania, managing director at Idea Cellular, who appeared to have had enough of the bonhomie on show and went on to talk about the stress caused by Jio.

After Kapania exceeded his allotted time, Mathew Oommen, a director at Jio, summed up his views in a few minutes starting with a stinging line: "I will be in 4G speed, so I'll be very quick!"

It's clear...the battle continues...