Reliance Jio has completely changed the telecom sector of India; no one would have imagined the rates users are paying for the 4g data and calling facilities. Sunil Mittal, the Founder & Chairman of Bharti Enterprises had complained Jio for their loss to which Mukesh Ambani had replied strongly. (You can read Ambani’s reply by clicking here)

Now, Sunil Mittal has revealed what went wrong in the last few years which made Airtel face huge losses. Mittal admitted that their plan to invest in Africa in 2010 was not a fruitful one, and such mistakes take several years to fix. He also feels that the time, money and energy which got wasted in Africa could have helped them to attain the no. 1 position in Indian market.

“We all must have made lots of mistakes. Lots of decision when you look back, say I wish they were better thought through. If you pin me down to one, I would say in 2010 our decision to go to Africa was a bit rushed and that has taken 6-7-8 years and a lot of resources and my personal time to fix that,” Mittal said in an interview.

Bharti Airtel had invested $10.7 billion in a Kuwait-based company- Zain Telecom in 2010, after which the company operated in 17 African countries. “In Africa, thankfully, it is much better place today. It is free cash flow positive but when I look I think if I would have conserved that energy, capital and energy, probably we would have been better place today in our home market. Every entrepreneur comes to a point where you make some mistake and the only thing is that you should recognize it and try to fix it as fast as you can,” Mittal added.

While speaking about Reliance Jio’s effect in India, Mittal revealed that Airtel not only has to work hard in the telecom market to win, but also to remain relevant. The company is getting tough competition from other companies like Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio in the Indian market, but is trying to cope up with the market situations by introducing new plans for their users.