Google’s Bharti stake levels India’s playing field

There’s but one way to take on Reliance Industries’ reputation as the best telecom operator in India: get Alphabet's validation. The search company’s Google fund is spending $700 million on new shares amounting to 1.2% of Bharti Airtel , the country’s second biggest operator by subscribers. The pair will also work together to make smartphones affordable so they can tap hundreds of millions of new users, and collaborate on cloud and 5G innovations.