Gopal Vittal , CEO for Airtel in India and South Asia, welcomed the proposed alliance, although he noted that it was a “forced” one, created by offering an “unfair playing field” to a company while completely destroying the viability of the others. Jio’s introductory free voice and data services, which both Airtel and Idea have termed predatory, have eroded profitability for telecom companies. Airtel reported a 55% drop in third-quarter net profit last week and Idea is expected to post its first net loss on February 11.While the proposed merger is expected to bring a semblance of rationality to an industry bloodied by the Jio-induced price war, Bharti Airtel will need to get used to being the No. 2 telco in India. The combined entity will have about 390 million subscribers compared with about 266 million for Airtel and a larger revenue share – about 43% compared with 33%.“Airtel will obviously try very hard to bounce back and make the most of any opportunity any player in the market will give us to increase our market share,” a second executive told ET.

Source: Economic Times January 31, 2017 17:37 UTC