When market leaders get thrown off by challengers, there are many ways using which they can retaliate! One such is the strategy adopted by Bharti Airtel to not just sustain but also grow in terms of its significance. The purpose of this piece is discussing the same. 

While the celebratory company Reliance winning conquests in terms of various diversifications launched Jio, telecom market leaders were absolutely thriving! However, the launch of Jio turned into a nightmare for these market leaders in no time. 
Airtel has an approximate subscriber base of 307 million upon its acquisition of Telenor, despite this a drop of approximately 72% year-on-year net profit in the fourth quarter of 2016-2017 hit the company.  Idea and Vodafone announced a merger which is expected to take the telecom industry by a storm. This merger, as we at B2B deem it to be is a strategic move utilised by the two market leaders to retain and retaliate by creating the country’s largest telecom company with a revenue of approximately 80,000 Crore, as per media reports. 
According to Mr. Gopal Vittal(Chief Executive Officer, Bharti Airtel) such a time is of essence for acceleration towards acquiring a higher market share, which is key to surviving for Airtel given its current standing. 
For the means of acquiring this market share, the company seeks to use a counter-offence defence mechanism by the means of investing a sum of  2.5 Billion to expand its 4G network across the country. 
Counter-offence as we call it refers to undertaking a strategy very much similar to that of the market challenger in this case, Jio; for the purpose of beating the challenger at its very own game. 

What comes out of this rivalry for consumers? Lower prices, increased connectivity and greater variety to choose from. Hence, the next time a telecom service centre is bugging you, you don’t have to succumb to it but rather have the choice and freedom to easily switch to  another service provider. 
Coming back to Airtel, in the past such turnaround strategies have both worked and failed like any other: what lies in store for this Indian MNC? Only time will tell!