New GSM players will not last more than three years: Mittal

Barcelona (Spain), Feb.13 : Confederation of Indian Industry President and Bharti Group Chairman and CEO, Sunil Mittal, today predicted that new players entering the telecom sector would not last more than three years.

Addressing the GSM Mobile Congress here, Mittal said new firms needed at least a year to build their network and at least two years to after that to attempt to survive in a highly competitive environment.

Mittal endorded Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin views aired on Tuesday that only one or two new players would remain in the arena and consolidation process will start in the telecom sector.

He also expressed a desire to buy spectrum from the market in case if it did not get the additional frequency from the government.

"Who buys them or not, after 36 months is not clear... our position is that please don't give spectrum to anybody at the cost of our (existing players) growth path," Mittal said.

Bharti Airtel has achieved 60 million subscriber base (both mobile and fixed) and one billion minutes of traffic is going through its network per day.

ANI