After energy, media and consumer goods, it is Adani vs Ambani in telecom

• Gautam Adani has thrown his hat into the 5G race, recording Mukesh Ambani† Sunil Mittal and Kumar Mangalam Birla†
• If he succeeds, Adanic will face Ambani in yet another room after hitting heads with him on energy, media and consumer goods.
• Interestingly, the Adani group also says this would count towards the ₹60,000 crore charity pledge.

The competition between Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani could soon enter yet another space – telecoms, after India’s second richest person confirmed his participation in 5G spectrum auctions.

The race for the crown of India’s richest person has been neck and neck this year, with Gautam Adani rushing past Mukesh Ambani after an unprecedented surge in his wealth in the past year. The two have regularly outdone each other, and now Gautam Adani could pull another rabbit out of his hat with his bid for 5G spectrum.

Rumors are running rampant about the Adani group entering the 5G race, and now the Gautam Adani-led giant has confirmed it. The Adani group is the fourth company besides the telecom trio of Trust JioBharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have submitted their bids for 5G spectrum.

“As India prepares to roll out next-generation 5G services through this auction, we are one of many applicants participating in the open bidding process,” the company said in a statement.

Adani wants 5G, but not for what you think

However, there is a twist to the story before you get excited or annoyed at the prospect of Adani 5G – the company said in its statement that it is not interested in the consumer mobility space. And given the kind of competition that’s already in this space thanks to jioAirtel and Vodafone Idea – and the deep pockets of Jio, the Adani group probably doesn’t find it lucrative enough.

It also makes some sense, given that experts believe that most of the money to be made in the 5G space will be in the business segment, not the consumer segment.

“India is a price sensitive market, so the revenue for anyone providing 5G will come from new segments that are opening up, and that’s machine-to-machine communication, that’s corporate communication,” said COAI Director General Dr. SP Kochhar. in an exclusive interaction with https://londonbusinessblog.com/ India.

He added that business services are likely to contribute to 70% of 5G revenue, which will then be combined with the 30-40% consumer services revenue to deliver 5G services to consumers at nearly the same rates as 5G.

Adani wants to use this for his 60,000 charity pledge

In what seems like a somewhat strange definition of charity, the statement from the Adani group says that if 5G spectrum wins, it will count towards the Adani Foundation’s 60,000 crore pledge for charity – this includes education, health care and rural development. in rural areas.

However, this is what the statement also says: “We are participating in the 5G spectrum auction to provide private network solutions, along with enhanced cybersecurity at the airport, ports and logistics, power generation, transmission, distribution and various manufacturing activities.”

Essentially, this includes the diversified business empire of the Adani group, spanning all these industries.

However, it is not clear how the Adani group suggests that this would also count towards its 60,000 crore charity pledge unless the group counts that some of its 5G spectrum spending is also used for CSR activities. Even then, a very twisted logic is at work here.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how Adani group’s 5G bid shapes the telecom industry, which has already expressed its opposition to private 5G networks.

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