China Mobile may tie-up with Airtel, Voda Idea to enter Indian market

New Delhi: China’s state-run mobile telephony service provider China Mobile held talks with Indian mobile telecom operators Vodafone Idea and Bharati Airtel to jointly enter the Indian market.

According to sources, senior executives of China Mobile met their counterparts from Bharati Airtel and Vodafone Idea in December and discussed investing in both through a holding company.

China Mobile is keen to set up a cloud network in India through partnerships with either or both companies.

If the deal goes through then Vodafone Idea and Bharati Airtel will get enough financial muscle to compete with Jio and acquire some cutting edge 5G technology from China Mobile.

China Mobile is the third-largest telecommunications company in the world and the largest in mainland China.