Despite big 5G plans, debt-laden Airtel wobbling in war with Ambani's Jio

Airtel added 53,500 subscribers, Jio 17 million in first two months of 2019

In a war for the control of India’s billion-plus mobile-services market, tycoon Sunil Mittal seems to be floundering in the face of a juggernaut unleashed by Mukesh Ambani.

For at least a fourth quarter in a row, Mittal’s Bharti Airtel Ltd. shored up its profits with one-time gains, masking headwinds posed by upstart Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. Jio’s roll-out, after its 2016 debut, has knocked Airtel from its perch in a consolidation that shrank the industry to three players from about a dozen four years ago.

Airtel is struggling to add subscribers in a saturated market after Jio managed to lure more