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The adversity surrounding the telecom sector over the 2G scam probe may give a few politicians and businessmen sleepless nights, but the Chairman of Spice Group, Mr Bhupendra Kumar Modi begs to differ.
“Businessmen usually like uncertainty; they see it as a great business opportunity,” said Mr Modi, in an exclusive chat with Business Line . “I personally feel that there will be consolidation in the sector once the Government unveils the new telecom policy. Maybe six or seven players will be left in the fray,” Mr Modi, who made a fortune by selling his stake in Spice Telecom to Aditya Birla Group-owned Idea Cellular, said.
Nobody knows better about mergers and acquisitions than Mr Modi, the ‘king of joint ventures', as he was popularly known in early 80s. During the pre-liberalisation period when it was mandatory for foreign companies to partner Indian companies, Mr Modi brought home global majors such as Xerox, Olivetti and Telstra. After liberalisation he exited some and retained the exciting ones.
“The next big wave in telecom will be internet and entertainment on mobile,” Mr Modi said .
In India, internet now is largely used for accessing mails and business purposes. “This trend will witness a sea change if we can drop the price point of the smart phones; as such the cost of accessing internet on mobile is negligible,” said Mr Modi.
He feels India has a long way to go as less than three per cent of mobile users in India access the Net on mobile while it is 45 per cent in China and 30 per cent in Indonesia.
Net Revolution
Armed with his recent acquisition of Indonesia-based mobile handset maker Nexian and the joint venture with Taiwan-based chip maker MediaTek, Mr Modi targets to revolutionise the way internet is accessed from i2i (Ivory Coast to Indonesia). The India-focused Modi group company, S Mobility, aims to bring trendy handsets for youth along with unlimited entertainment.
S Mobility had tied up with Reliance Communication, Tata Communication and other service providers.
The Group's Singapore-based S i2i will be spearheading Mr Modi's dream across the globe while in India it would be S Mobility that would launch a series of internet-ready handsets with screen size ranging between 2.4 inch and 10 inch. The company has a manufacturing unit at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.
“The Group has invested Rs 2,000 crore in telecom over the last few years and will invest another $2 billion over the next decade. Our target is to generate revenue of $20 billion over the next 10 years, with India contributing $4 billion,” said Mr Modi.
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