Opinion | How our telecom market might yet thrive with less competition

In three swift moves over the past few weeks, Jio Platforms, which houses Jio’s telecom business, JioCinema, JioNews, JioSaavn and Jio Mart among other digital services, has managed to raise a staggering ₹60,000 crore-odd by selling just under 14% of its equity to Facebook, Vista Equity Partners and Silver Lake. This implies a valuation of around ₹4.9 trillion for the Reliance-owned Jio Platforms.

Jio’s main rival, Bharti Airtel, is currently valued at just over ₹2.9 trillion, while the third player, Vodafone Idea, is valued at a little over ₹13,000 crore, at closing market prices on 11 May. The game changer is Jio’s ability to raise so much money at such high valuations. This, taken together with Airtel’s own high valuation, implies that Vodafone is seen to be in trouble. The only situation in which it can remain a major player in India is if its two promoters, Vodafone UK and the Aditya Birla Group, dig deep into their pockets to raise a large amount of equity.