BPL Mobile: End Of An Era

Yesterday was a bit of a sentimental day! I was reminded of this by Harsha Subramaniam of Bloomberg whilst on an interview about the Budget & Economy. My entrepreneurial journey began in the 90s when I set up BPL Mobile in Mumbai, enabling the first cellular call on Oct 2, 1995! Now, that company changes hands from Loop to Airtel at the end of a 20 year license period!

I have had the privilege of working with some of the finest and most passionate people during that time - many of whom have gone on to other telcos in India and worldwide! To them all I say a big Thank you! I am what I am today thanks to the experience!

Quoting a dear colleague Akshay Kumar:

“My telecom journey began with BPL Mobile. Rajeev Chandrasekhar and the team were very passionate about building a great telco. I had the time of my life, learning how to lead a business. And for the first time, how to work within an Indian family run business. Those were heady days, lost deeply in labour of love, and making friends who still love to get together. And of course the in/famous ADR effort. If only…if only. So many individual stories of what might have been if only better sense had prevailed.

And then it morphed into Loop Mobile, but was still a stand-alone like the original company. But now it’s going to get dissolved into the Airtel ocean. End of an era. End of those stories. But the memories will never end. Thank you BPL Mobile for the numerous moments.”