Telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal sees more consolidation sweeping the Indian telecom sector and expects just four private operators to remain in business in 24 months from now.
"Consolidation is finally happening. Aircel and MTS are gone with their merger with Reliance Communication. Videocon is gone as it has sold its spectrum to us. Besides BSNL/ MTNL, I expect only four operators to remain in 24 months," Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel, said here on Tuesday.
He was responding to queries from visiting Indian mediapersons on the likely state of play in the Indian telecom sector in the coming days.
Mittal, who had recently assumed charge as International Chamber of Commerce Chairman, lauded government policies of allowing spectrum sharing and trading, noting that they have encouraged consolidation in the sector.
He also saw data revenues' share in overall revenues growing to 50 per cent in 36 months. It is about 23-24 per cent now.
Going forward, Mittal sees realisation from data services drop, but this is expected to be made up by increased volumes.
"The scale (of data consumption) would rise, which would be helpful," Mittal said.
It is widely perceived that only Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio Infocomm would remain in business in 24 months from now post the current round of consolidation.