Sunil Mittal

The latest offering comes under the 'Mera Pehla Smartphone' initiative by Airtel. Earlier this month, the Sunil Mittal company had tied up with Karbonn Mobiles to bring 4G smartphone at an effective cost of Rs 1,399.

S&P said however that Airtel's rating is "unaffected" by its recently-announced acquisition of the Tata Group firm. "...in our view, this deal increases integration risk for Bharti because the company will be simultaneously integrating the operations of Telenor India (acquired last fiscal) and Tata Teleservices over the next 12-18 months, while responding to the intense competition," it said.

On the state of competition in the telecom sector -- which saw fierce tariff wars hitting the bottom line of large telcos -- Mittal said "competition is going down".

"What worries me is that due to lack of global leadership, we are seeing large powerful countries now starting to talk about barriers... This is the time when India needs to even more forcefully talk about its narrative of openness and open societies," Mittal said while addressing a session at the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Airtel will invest Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000 crore this year, he said, adding that the industry overall will be injecting Rs 50-60,000 crore to build digital infrastructure.

More than 600 participants from public and private sector as well as civil society are expected to participate in the India forum that would be hosted along with industry body CII.

"IUC has no relation to customer tariff and that customers are enjoying free or affordable calls is a testimony that the current IUC regime is not coming in the way of affordable tariffs," Mittal said in a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

In a letter to Trai Chairman R S Sharma, Mittal said that the current Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) at 14 paisa is already "well below cost".

Mittal, who was last year re-appointed as Chairman of the company for another five years, received salary and allowances of Rs 20.13 crore, while the performance-linked incentive stood at Rs 9 crore during FY17.

Not overly concerned about protectionism as his business is "rooted in the domestic market", Mittal highlighted that it is unfair that movement of Indian workers gets restricted, while foreign firms make huge profits in India.

Mittal, 59, speaking in his capacity as Chairman of the world's largest business organisation International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), said it is a matter of concern that parts of the developed world are now embracing a protectionist attitude.

Telecom operator Vodafone today complained to Trai that Reliance Jio is still "luring customers" to subscribe the 'Summer Surprise' offer despite the regulator finding it in violation of norms.

Analysts believe Infratel will add 16,000 towers annually even after the Vodafone-Idea deal.

Mittal, the founder of Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel, has called for lowering or putting an end to roaming charges to prevent customers from bill shocks.

Telecom operators are now happily working with Internet firms like Google, Facebook and Whatsapp but regulator TRAI must clarify rules to resolve differences over app-based calling and message services, Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal has said.

Indian telecom operators will start adopting 5G technology, which in present form can deliver up to 1000 mbps download speed, from this year, Huawei India CEO Jay Chen said today.

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal has urged sectoral regulator TRAI to adopt a long-term vision for the industry and not approach regulations in "fits and starts" or reactive manner.

The auction last year had seen a muted response on account of high spectrum cost.

Most regulators still live in "analogue world", India's telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal said on Monday, nudging them to allow consolidation.

Representatives of Indian industry, including online retail and technology firms, today discussed issues pertaining to global trade and e-commerce with WTO chief Roberto Azevedo.