Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel is to acquire rival Tata Teleservices's struggling mobile business, the companies said Thursday, the latest move towards consolidation in the country's hyper-competitive phone market. In a joint statement the pair said Bharti would take on Tata's 40 million subscribers, boosting its customer base, and add network coverage as it tries to fend off the rise of Reliance Jio, owned by India's richest man.
"This is a significant development towards further consolidation in the Indian mobile industry," Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said in the statement. "(It) reinforces our commitment to lead India's digital revolution by offering world-class and affordable telecom services through a robust technology and solid spectrum portfolio," he added.
India's multi-billion-dollar telecoms industry has been rushing to consolidate since Mukesh Ambani launched Jio in September 2016, sparking a price war by offering free voice calls for life and drastically reduced tariffs. Its arrival left competitors scrambling to match the deep pockets of Jio which is backed by Ambani's hugely wealthy energy-to-chemicals conglomerate Reliance Industries.
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