If Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook, is the toast of the tech industry these days, Sunil Mittal, founder of Airtel, has been the flag bearer of India’s telecom story for a decade.

And when the two meet then there can be only one outcome – more disruptive ideas.

Mittal met the Facebook founder over dinner to discuss the future of communications and potential partnership with Airtel. The meeting comes at a time when telecom companies in general are worried about the disruption being caused by social networking sites and Internet services companies.

For example, instant messaging companies such as WhatsApp, now acquired by Facebook, have killed the once thriving SMS revenue. While the immediate path between telcos and Internet services firms look to be on a collision course, there is one ultimate common goal – to connect the next billion users. Beginnings of a symbiotic relationship are already visible. Facebook and Airtel have partnered in Rwanda to offer subsidised data services.

According to sources, Mittal and Zuckerberg discussed how telecom companies like Airtel can play a bigger role in the entire piece to make it profitable for everyone.

Biggest barrier Zuckerberg, in his keynote at the Mobile World Congress, has argued that the biggest barrier in connecting people to the Internet in emerging markets is no longer the cost of phones, but expensive data plans.

He made a case for operators to introduce unlimited bundles with free access to basic Internet services such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

But the key problem is that this proposal is Facebook-centric, with the social network and other Internet players reaping the immediate benefits. Telecom companies, which invest billions of dollars in buying spectrum and rolling out networks, do not get adequate returns.

Zuckerberg himself conceding the model needs fine tuning to strengthen the business case for operators.

Perhaps, Mittal may have given the right idea to make this work.

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