Mukesh Ambani who changed the Indian telecom sector after the launch of Reliance Jio is finally speaking in the open about the criticism he is been facing from his competitors.
Calling Sunil Mittal a friend, Ambani said “businesses must stop looking at regulators and governments to guarantee their profits”. He even added, “profits and losses are risks businesses take and it is more important to find out if the country and the consumers gained after Jio”.
According to Ambani, after the launch of Jio, India has become the world’s No.1 mobile broadband market, which now consumes more data than users in the US and China. Ambani wants other companies to focus on the customer satisfaction rather than on making profits. He expressed his views in a statement “To me, what is most important is did we move the country forward and does the consumer gain,” he said. “The question… you should be thinking about is even if there are profits and losses, who gains and who loses. And as long as the consumer gains and the country move forward, it is worth taking those losses… Some of us are big boys, we can afford that,” Ambani added.
This was in response to Sunil Mittal, Founder & Chairman of telecom firm Bharti Airtel commented that all telecom companies had put together written down $40-50 billion of investments just because of Jio’s entry.
Ambani thinks that Jio is way ahead of schedule on turning profitable. He said, “I don’t want to predict, but I think we are ahead of our schedule in terms of the returns that we are generating. Jio results are declared every quarter now. You can see the trend. You watch the next few quarters. You will learn in January and you will learn in March.”
According to Ambani use of digital technology can help other sectors including financial services, agriculture, education, commerce, manufacturing, and healthcare to grow in India.
