Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal says with return on capital in telecom industry, “We may as well put the money in the bank and go …”

Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal lamented poor return on capital expenditure for the telecom industry world wide. Speaking on Day 1 at the Europe’s biggest mobile industry annual tradeshow, Mittal said that the way the telecom industry functions globally is unsustainable. “We will [have] to reset our industry.”

Mittal urged telecom authorities worldwide to lower taxes and allocate sufficient spectrum at affordable rates. He said that while average industry revenue growth is just around 2%, year after year telecom companies have to face demands to buy expensive spectrum. This amounts to almost putting $200 billion into capex annually.