<b>Bhupesh Bhandari:</b> Quite an Idea, Sir<i>ji</i>

The proposed merger between Vodafone and Idea didn't catch people by surprise

The proposed merger between Vodafone and Idea Cellular didn’t catch people by surprise. A lot of commentators, much before the two companies admitted on January 30 that they were indeed in talks, had started to say how such a merger makes sense. You could call it the Reliance Jio effect.

In a scenario where the newcomer had made voice calls free and waived off all data bills for six months, incumbent networks had come under great stress. Combined with the high cost of spectrum, this had made a shakeout imminent. 

From almost a dozen players at the peak, there were just three