Delay in 3G auction is a matter of concern: Sunil Mittal

Sunil Mittal chairman and CEO of Bharti Airtel says the repeated postponement of the

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3G auction by the government is a matter of concern, since India sorely needs the third generation services.

Speaking to a group of reporters on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit organized by the World Economic Forum and CII, Mittal said he hoped the auctions are held soon because any postponement would not be good for the industry. “India needs broadband wireless urgently,” he said.

Talking of the tariff war among operators, he said he could not predict where it would lead to. “We never start the tariff war. But we have to react to the market. We cannot ignore it. Every industry has to do that,” Mittal said.

He said Airtel, despite a change to per second billing was still fighting on service and quality. “Whether it’s our network, our roaming, our range of services, we only compete in the market on the basis of quality and not tariff.” There are people in the market, Mittal said, who only fight on the basis of tariff because they have no business, he said At the end, he said, what counted was cost per minute and rate per minute.

On the investigations going into 2G auctions by the Central Bureau of Investigation he said they would not have any impact on the industry. “They are trying to find if there was anything wrong. I only know what I read in the papers and see on television.”

Talking about the retail plans, he said they had not scaled up their plans, but neither had they scaled down. They had a plan to open 30 to 40 cash and carry outlets and they had managed to do so. “We are not going very fast, but it’s all in accordance with the plan,” Mittal said.

He also said that the chairman of Wal-Mart S Robson Walton met the Prime Minister but they would not have discussed the joint venture between Bharti group and the largest company in the world.

Asked if his company was looking for acquisition abroad, he said “we are taking a break,” after the MTN deal fell through. He said the company was not actively looking and bankers have not come up with any proposal. “But I am sure they will, soon,” ruling out any interest in Kuwait-based Zain Telecom in which MTNL has shown interest..

Talking about the stock markets where the telecom stocks, including his company’s, had taken a battering, Mittal said all he would tell the investors is that “watch our actions, wait for our results and then make your decision.”