Phoney war

It’s not only through advertising wars that competing companies take indirect potshots at one another; press conferences provide ample opportunity too. Asked whether Bharti Airtel would gain subscribers after the Supreme Court cancelled 122 telecom licences owned by new entrants, CEO for India and South Asia Sanjay Kapoor said the company has not seen customers lining up to join its network, adding, “We have not gone and placed advertisements in any newspaper.” He was, of course, referring to ads that rival Vodafone placed in papers the day after the Supreme Court order inviting customers to join a network they could “depend on”. Kapoor, however, was quick to say that irrespective of developments, the company’s sales and marketing reps are already all out there to woo subscribers.