Executives atop India's mobile-phone industry foresee a consolidation that could knock Bharti Airtel Ltd. out of first place in the $26 billion market. The catalyst: free calls and industry debt that has ratcheted up to more than double revenue.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani escalated a price war in September, vowing to reorder the market and luring tens of millions of new subscribers with Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.'s free services. Bharti Airtel cited "predatory pricing" when it reported a worse-than-expected 55 percent drop in quarterly profit on Jan. 24.
That competitive pressure is drawing attention to possible deals such as an alliance between the country's No. 2 provider Vodafone India and its third largest, Idea Cellular Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter. Such a combination would overtake Bharti Airtel in number of subscribers.
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