The Early Days: 1999-2002

Mobile telephony finally knocked at the door of the Indian consumer. Telephone providers had applied for licenses according to circles and soon were granted their wish. Lo behold every little boys Star Trek dream had come true in India. The calling rates were high and it was a matter of pride if you had a cell phone forget about making and receiving calls on the cell. Bharti/Airtel emerged as the new force of Indian telecom, with great connectivity and excellent service, they created bench marks which in many ways are hard to beat today.

The first Salvo Circa 2002-2004

It all started with the old Reliance and Bharti war. From Dhirubhai Ambani's dream and Sehwag's mother came the very popular challenge to the hegemony of the King Khan and the Bharti realm. Very soon the war intensified, alliances were sought and made. But the threat passed and both survived, mostly because they were both on different platforms, Bharti on GSM and Reliance in CDMA. Also the segmentation for both the brands were different, Reliance concentrating on low end consumers, Students, small shop keepers, while Bharti concentrated on the corporate segment, keeping a eagle eye on the ARPU. Still the consumer benefited, incoming was free, and service levels(even for Reliance) improved.

The Second Strike Circa 2004-2006

Enter Vodaphone. The dust had hardly settled on the skirmish between Reliance and Bharti that another Gladiator Vodaphone led by Arun Sareen entered the market. Orange, Hutch and Analjit Singh were pacified and amalgamated into a few fighting unit. The pug was their chosen weapon for an all out frontal attack on the Shah Rukh led Bharti. Just when it looked like the pug was getting better of King Khan, the pug fell from grace. Zoo zoo came in and King Khan and Bharti ruled. Vodafone did receive a consolatory award from PETA for decommissioning the Pug, while Mr Mittal smiled all the way to the bank.

The Battle of the Humble Paisa Circa 2009-

It started abruptly, One fine day the Bharti juggernaut was derailed by the Friendship express and Docomo. For those who dismissed them initially, Docomo has a reputation for cool stuff in the land of the rising sun and Tata’s know a trick or two about the Indian Market. Pay per second became the mantra and Bharti had no clue but to follow suit. There were legal implications according to Bharti, but it was more a case of ' why did they not think of it earlier'. The Docomo express rolls on but not without teething problems. Their sharing agreement with BSNL is doing them in and consumers are complaining of dropped calls and Congested networks. And Uninor entered the scene to make it a Mexican standoff. Surprisingly they opted for the Per Minute plan but at 29 paisa per minute for Local and 49 paisa per minute for STD they are clearly one up in the pricing department.

So how does this end? Well the rule of three says that there can be only three players in any market. Of cource we have to define the market first. Also there is this entire question of allowing people to retain their numbers even if they change the provider. This will really help the new challengers to take the attack to the champions. Whatever happens from now, it will be an entertaining phase in the history of telecommunications in India, and as King Khan would say 'Bade Shereon main aise choti baaten hoti rehte hain'.

PS : I have not taken into considerarion the state behemoth BSNL/MTNL and all Idea givers as they were not the key factions in these battles.