Ambani, Mittal bonhomie on dais amid telco war

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Enterprises, called each other ‘friends’ while sharing dais during the India Mobile Congress.

In another session, their group telecom firms battled it out, putting forward divergent views over the recent cut in interconnect usage charges (IUC) by telecom regulator Trai.

Ambani and Mittal warmly shook hands as they entered the arena. While Ambani began his address referring to Mittal as a “good friend”, Mittal reciprocated by calling the RIL chief a “dear friend”.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have, for over the past one year, been at loggerheads on issues such as points of interconnect, free voice calls, asymmetry of network traffic and cut in IUC.

The session by CEOs saw executives talking about the impact of Trai cutting interconnect usage charg (IUC).

Ambani said in his speech, “We must break silos and forge partnerships. No corporate, nor the government can do it alone. Together, we can achieve the unimaginable.”

During his speech, Mittal advocated a “collaborative” approach saying, “Clearly, as Mukesh pointed out, none of us can do it alone... We all have to come together. While we compete head-on for benefit of consumers, we have to collaborate among ourselves.”