In 2022, the telecom network wIll start to shIft Into space”

You have stayed focussed on telecom. Are you thinking of getting into providing content and other such services?

There is no service provided by a telecom company in the world which Airtel does not provide. Yes, we don’t produce our own content. We don’t have our own studios but we have tie-ups — Amazon, Netflix, Zee5. We will never be good at doing stuff that others do better than us. A classic case and I can reveal it today is the AT&T-Time Warner acquisition. When that happened, I straight away spoke to the AT&T CEO. He said the world has changed, smartphones have come and you will be able to groom content for mobile phone screens.

He told me he would ensure that Time Warner and AT&T are miles away, in terms of no-interference. But once you take over a company, the acquirer starts to put his people. That acquisition hasn’t gone down well is the only example I can give you of a telecom company going for a big bet