Hello and welcome to CNBC TV 18 special coverage here from Davos 2026. I'm Shireen Bhan. It's very hard to get this man to join us in our Davos studios. But we finally managed Sunil Mittal. What an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much for joining us here in Davos. Let me first start by asking you what the big takeaway is from that Trump address, what he had to say, the resetting of the global order so to speak.
Well, I think there are many things that can be taken out of that speech. Some prepared speech and rest a lot of rambling all over as you know. But I think what you take out of that is a new world order has been set. Now where it lands itself we have to see. The direction is very clear, the old institutions are not working, especially for the US they believe that they have been taken advantage of despite being the richest nation in the world. So I don't know how to balance that argument that they have been taken advantage of yet they keep on becoming richer. In Trump's small gathering that we had yesterday, he said 'I have since I've come everybody's become twice as rich if not more. I have made American business people more rich.' So in some sense he's acknowledging that America is getting the better deal out of the world and yet he's complaining. But that's who he is. He wants more for his people, more for his country. But I think the most important out of this is some of the very close allies of US, Canada, Europe and many others recognize today that they are now not having the backing of US as they had before. And that would mean that Europe, Canada, many other countries will have to start thinking about themselves.
What about India in all of this and specifically India in response and relation to the US?
I think India is busy doing many other things. The EU deal is around the corner. I'm very hopeful that on the 26th, 27th something will be announced. Both sides have made early statements to say everything is looking in good shape. India has tied up with UK very very comprehensively. Australia has done, New Zealand is done, Saudi is done, UAE is done, Qatar is done. Only piece that is left is US now. I think it will be done. My own view is there are some last minute negotiations and some creases that have to be ironed out between the political leadership. But I think US needs to be reminded that for the last 10-15 years, especially during Prime Minister Modi's term, India has leaned a lot towards the US. It has moved away from a lot of those countries which America was not in favor of. Our relationship with China has changed. We started to move away even from Russia in some sense. You just can't throw this 10 years of work away by getting upset on one or two trade issues, on some duty on something which is not delightful to a small constituency in the US. We have invested very heavily into this relationship. I am hopeful that better sense will prevail all around and we will come to a decent landing point. It may not be a 100% satisfactory outcome, but no deal is 100% perfect. You will get to a point where both nations will start to come closer.
Well, Ma, let's talk a little bit about business. Now, I want to start by asking you about possible tariff hikes because the last time when we spoke in Davos, you'd spoken about an ARPU closer to 200. We're now at 250. Uh 300. Are we already at 300? No.
I said my wish has been your wish has been 300. We're at 250 currently. So a tariff hike likely in the offing even possible. I think everybody agrees that a tariff repair is absolutely essential. There is no one including the government who believes that you need to have a very robust solid infrastructure supporting the digital dreams of India. For that, investments are to be regularly made and we are not talking about investments for the faint-hearted. There are billions of dollars going every year into the network, into spectrum. Therefore, there's got to be a reasonable business case out there. 300 rupees is what I said eight or nine years back. I'm not even asking for adjustment of inflation. Just in real terms, 300 is still eluding us. Can we get there? It needs another 15-17% increase in tariffs or rearrangement of packs that are given out for 200 bucks, giving everything away just to get more market share. It's unsustainable. Something has to give and we are seeing now from 12 operators we are down to two operators plus one which is trying to make a comeback. I personally believe time has come for this to be a crowdsourced event where the whole country can benefit from a very strong digital infrastructure highway in which everybody is contributing 20-30 rupees a month to consume a ton of data and enjoy many services that they need for everyday life. So I think I'm hopeful that sometime in 26, we may yet come to the point of touching 300.
But you talked about a comeback of the third player and now with this AGR uncertainty which was looming large over that particular player ending in a way or being resolved in a way, a game of three essentially, what could that mean?
We have always said 3+1 is good for India. It's a large country. World over you see two or three operators. But for a size of India, I think 3+1 is a good play place. And we are hoping that the word of idea will start to be more active in the marketplace. They're welcome. There should be three operators; it keeps everybody in the right place from the customer point of view. And from our own standpoint, we are hoping we've written to the government that AGR was our issue as well. And we hope we get attention from the government. Not as yet? We heard from the minister yesterday. He mentioned that everybody needs to follow the route that Vodafone Idea followed which is via the courts. But we still engage with the government. We just want to present our case to the government, especially around reassessment and recalculation. I think that's not a legal point, that's a mathematical point of correction of errors, manifest errors. We'll engage with the government first. Well, they're going for Vodafone Idea because I think for anybody, if the formula will be the same, if your paid money that has not been counted, if there are double billing that has come through, if all that is established, your base principle goes down and that has a cascading effect on penalty, interest on penalty, and the amount can come down significantly. I don't think any government would want to take more money than it is due. Our case is we are saying take what is due. We are not asking for any concession but don't take more than what is due.
Don't take more than what is due and you haven't heard back from them on the plea for reassessment just yet. But I want to understand from you what we can expect now as far as your capex plans are concerned. They have been moderating. What can we expect in light of this move to 6G and whether or not we are on the cusp of a 6G rollout as well? Give me a sense of what we should realistically expect.
You know, capex has not come down. 30,000 crores and I'm not talking about spectrum. We are spending 30,000 crore and I'm only talking about India, not Africa and other places. 30,000 crore is being spent in capex every year. It'll continue to be spent. If it is not 4G, it gets into 4G, 5G. 5G is almost tapering off, it's more fiber, it's more FWA, it's more data centers. So you'll continuously see about 30,000 crore, give or take a little bit, a little more than 30 and less than 30. As to 6G, standards are still being formed. I think we are a few years away. But we don't produce technology, we use technology for the betterment of society, our people, the digital dream that we have. AI is solving a lot of problems. It's really coming in a big way. We have been the leading operator around the globe in checking spam and fraud. Billions of messages and calls are being prevented, yet it's not complete. We are doing more there.
