Opinion | Telecom consolidation can end party for users
The consolidation in India’s telecom industry that witnessed the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular shows no sign of abating. Market leaders Vodafone Idea Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd, after merging their towers businesses, are now preparing to combine their fibre assets in an effort to conserve their energies and their finances. In the face of falling average revenue per user and the cost of servicing huge levels of debt, India’s once-robust telecom services industry is witnessing rapid concentration. In a 2018 study titled, Evaluating Market Consolidation In Mobile Communications, researchers Christos Genakos, Tommaso Valletti and Frank Verboven looked at the experience of 33 countries between 2002 and 2014, and found that increased market concentration in the mobile industry potentially generates an important trade-off.
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