The dominance of four players has spawned 'natural' consolidation in Bangladesh's mobile telephony market, India's telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal has said.
"Six operators are too many. Three to four is an ideal size (for Bangladesh)," chairman of Bharti Airtel said.
"Top three are very strong. Currently, you got natural consolidation. I don't know how many will be down the road," he told The Financial Express in an interview.
At the end of October this year, nearly 119 million Bangladeshis used cellphones and Airtel had 7.56 million users, making it the fourth largest operator in the country's fiercely competitive mobile phone market, where Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel control as much as 94 per cent shares.
Bharti spent $300 million to snap up 70 per cent stakes in Warid Telecom in early 2010 before acquiring the local arm of the Abu Dhabi-based cellphone firm.
Mr Mittal noted said his company has kept on investing in Bangladesh, enticed by 160-million-strong consumers living mostly on plain land.
"We are here in Bangladesh with India's largest investment in the telecom sector. Airtel here is growing in small but quick steps," the 57-year-old telecom baron said.
He said his company sank $100 million into the development of the 3G network last year and it has already invested several hundreds of millions of dollars in Airtel.
He insisted that his company would ramp up investments in Bangladesh's telecoms sector to capture the growing market of high-margin data services.
He said Airtel is witnessing double-digit growth in data services, although voice services are on the wane.
Mr Mittal cut his teeth on bicycle business at the age of 18, and eventually made a fortune of an estimated US$ 7.8 billion, which has catapulted him to the club of Indian billionaires.
Asked how he made money, the telecom mogul's response was oblique: "I did not make money. I've built a company-a successful enterprise. And that is an outcome of the hard work of all the employees of our company."
Mr Mittal launched Bharti Airtel in 1995 and helped it parlay into a cellphone colossal, which is now the world's fourth largest operator by number of customers. Including Bangladesh, it operates in 20 countries, although its African operations are struggling.
He founded parent Bharti Enterprises, which has interests in retail, realty, financial services and agri-products besides telecom.
While Singtel owns one-third of Airtel, he said his company "never" discussed the issue of merger with the struggling cellphone firm Citycell, majority controlled by Singtel, Singapore's biggest telecom firm.
A graduate of India's Punjab University, he also attended Harvard Business School in pursuit of widening his outlook.
"Business schools have a lot to offer. You look at new ways, it gives you broader horizon. And you never stop learning," he said, arguing in favour of attending business school.
Mr. Mittal was recently in the capital to take part in a conference organised by Bangladesh chapter of International Chamber of Commerce, dedicated to fragile global economic recovery after the Great Recession. He is the vice-chairman of the Paris-based global trade arbiter.
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/12/12/70568
