The rise and fall of Indian telecom entities

The Indian telecom industry is one long tale of launches, tie-ups, mergers and shutdowns. There were dozens of telecom companies in India once upon a time but surprisingly many have not made it to the present day.

According to a government documentary: “Within seven years of the invention of the telephone in 1876, telephone exchanges were established in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. By 1907, the central battery was introduced to replace the earlier cranking practice. Automatic telephone came to India in 1914 at Simla. The Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) came into being in 1948.”

One of the earliest entities was the Bombay Telephone company, but things remained relatively static till the 1970s. It was only in the 1980s when things picked up.

C-DOT: The Centre for Development of Telematics was formed by the government in 1984 and that played a great role in promoting telephony in India right to the current time.

MTNL: The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited was constituted in 1986 particularly to cater to the needs of Delhi and Bombay. It gave landline, mobile and broadband services.

HMTL: Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa and India’s Max Group combined to form the Hutchison Max Telecom Ltd in 1992. Do you remember the famous Hutch pug dog? It was one of the most successful ad campaigns of its time. 

Hutchison Essar: When the Essar Group got involved with HMTL, it became Hutchison Essar.

Vodafone India: Hutchison Essar got taken over by Vodafone to become Vodafone India.

BPL Mobile Communications: It was formed in 1994 with help from Khaitan Holdings. Founder Rajeev Chandrasekhar is today a politician.

Airtel: Formed in 1995, it could be called the only telecom company that was near the beginning and is left standing at the end. Sunil Mittal has been one of the most consistent telecom moguls.

Idea Cellular: This Aditya Birla company was formed in 1995. It had tie-ups with the Tatas and AT&T. It bought a stake in Spice Telecom.

Modicom Network Private Limited: This was formed in 1995 and underwent many iterations and Spice brand name. Malaysian company Axiata had a stake in it.

Escotel: Formed in 1996, it was merged into Idea in 2004.

Axiata: India’s Microland and Australia’s Telstra joined hands and subsequently became part of Axiata Spice Communications. 

TRAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India was set up in 1997 with the mission: To create and nurture conditions for the growth of telecommunications in India to enable the country to have a leading role in the emerging global information society.

Aircel: Formed in 1999 in the Tamil Nadu circle but later expanded to multiple states. It went bankrupt and tried for mergers with both Airtel and Reliance Communications. Famous for being sponsors of Chennai Super Kings.

BSNL: In contrast with MTNL for Delhi and Bombay, for the rest of India, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited was formed in 2000 and it subsequently took over MTNL.

Reliance Communications: Started in 2004 but became a victim of the battle between the Brothers Ambani (Mukesh and Anil). It had acquired the Russian origin Mobile TeleSystems India (MTS India). Of course that’s history.

S Tel: Formed with the help of Bahrain Communications in 2008. It fell under the cloud of the 2G scam (that virtually sank the Manmohan Singh government) and in 2012, the Supreme Court cancelled its license. 

Loop Mobile: In 2009, BPL Mobile Communications became Loop Mobile and was acquired by Airtel in 2014. 

Etisalat: The Emirates Telecommunication Group Company was formed in 2010, met exactly the same fate as S Tel in the 2G scam and shut down.

Videocon Telecom: Formed in 2008 and sold out to Airtel. 

Telenor India: Norweigian parent company also merged with Airtel. 

Tata Docomo: The Tatas had a tie-up with the Japanese NTT Docomo, also fell into Airtel’s kitty.

Virgin Mobile India: Billionaire maverick Richard Branson came to India, but it along with T24 Mobile also ended up in the Airtel family. 

Jio: It is difficult to believe that the free data revolution that Jio Mobile offered was as late as 2016. At that time there were certain packs in India that offered 10GB a month for Rs 1,000. When Jio offered 1GB a day or 30GB a month for free, it broke the telecom industry. Voice became irrelevant; it was all about data. 

Vodafone Idea: Idea Cellular merged with Vodafone India. At the time of the merger the parent Vodafone group held 45.2% of the stake and the Aditya Birla Group 26%.

Post script…

In the end dozens of telecom players were left in the ruins in India with a duopoly emerging of two strong players—Jio and Airtel, along with a weak supporting act by the two other players—Vodafone Idea (Vi) and BSNL.

Which data players could enter the market tomorrow in the telecom space? Adani has made baby steps towards that.