This is a bitter-sweet time for Samsung. The South Korean electronics major is forecasting a ~52% jump in its overall fourth-quarter operating profit from a year ago, thanks to the bumper performance of its chip business. In India, meanwhile, one of its key divisions, telecoms gear, that clocked nearly $1 billion in revenue just two years ago, is on a sharp decline.
Samsung’s telecoms story in India is closely tied with Reliance Jio’s blazing march, which vaulted the latter to the top of India's telecom sector in terms of subscriber base in just five years. As the sole supplier of the all-4G network gears to Jio, Samsung is desperately hoping for a redux of its 4G sprawl.
However, Jio has grown older and wiser worldwide, and probably wants its 5G network to be a two-horse vendor race. The MMS has learnt that its talks with Ericsson are gaining momentum. Unsurprisingly, Samsung is trying to woo the #2 telco—Bharti Airtel—to secure a slice of its 5G investments. As The MMS reports in our today's newsletter, the two companies have kept their talks under wraps. To the extent that Samsung executives from Korea and not its Mumbai office are leading the talks with Bharti Airtel.
The business relationships between the Korean conglomerate and the Reliance group go beyond telecoms gear. The two families are very close, and the former’s construction arm has its own business dealings with Reliance. Yet, an exclusive 5G network deal from Jio looks elusive to Samsung.
How Indian Bharti decides to ditch its over dependence on its two old vendors —Huawei and ZTE being out of the picture now - will swing the fate of Samsung’s networks business in India. We at Mumbai Multimedia Studio shines a light on the twists and turns in this tale finally