Airtel to expand 5G to 150 cities, 60,000 villages and 40,000 community clusters

Bharti Airtel Ltd plans to deploy a multipronged approach for future business growth, managing director and chief executive Gopal Vittal said. This will include improving the network experience in 150 cities while taking 5G services to 300 cities by March 2024 from 70 currently.

India’s No. 2 telecom operator will also expand its coverage into 60,000 new villages and 40,000 community clusters, step up investments in its digital businesses of CPaas, IoT and cloud, reduce network running costs at 80,000 high-cost sites while directing some 4G capacity investments to 5G as customers upgrade to the next-generation services.

“This expansion will give us our fair market share, and provide tailwinds to the business,” Vittal said at Airtel’s December quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

In the 150 cities, Airtel will use 5G with high speeds, going up to 500 Mbps, to pivot customers to move to high-value postpaid services, to boost average revenue per user (Arpu) and stickiness with the service. Airtel will also use data science to predict demand patterns across all its businesses to deploy resources to build better coverage, which will drive efficiencies even as it invests in building network infrastructure in these areas.

The carrier will also focus on building better engagements with enterprise business customers in these 150 cities through more investments in CPaas, IoT and cloud, to generate more business from the existing set of 500 enterprises.

On reducing sales and distribution costs, Vittal said 80,470 high cost sites have been identified where solutions to reduce the operating costs will be found over the next six to nine months. “5G could be a capacity offload for 4G, so we’re looking at squeezing out 4G capacity investments and direct it towards 5G,” he said.

Reiterating the need for tariffs to rise to ₹300 to get a ‘respectable’ return on capital employed, Vittal said the company’s portfolio was resilient and diverse, with 30% coming from Africa operations, India wireless contributing 50% and the balance from the fast-growing digital and enterprise businesses.

“This portfolio gives us a unique ability to withstand risks by being solidly positioned for where growth is coming from,” he said.

“This expansion will give us our fair market share, and provide tailwinds to the business,” Vittal said at Airtel’s December quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

In the 150 cities, Airtel will use 5G with high speeds, going up to 500 Mbps, to pivot customers to move to high-value postpaid services, to boost average revenue per user (Arpu) and stickiness with the service. Airtel will also use data science to predict demand patterns across all its businesses to deploy resources to build better coverage, which will drive efficiencies even as it invests in building network infrastructure in these areas.

The carrier will also focus on building better engagements with enterprise business customers in these 150 cities through more investments in CPaas, IoT and cloud, to generate more business from the existing set of 500 enterprises.

On reducing sales and distribution costs, Vittal said 80,470 high cost sites have been identified where solutions to reduce the operating costs will be found over the next six to nine months. “5G could be a capacity offload for 4G, so we’re looking at squeezing out 4G capacity investments and direct it towards 5G,” he said.

Reiterating the need for tariffs to rise to ₹300 to get a ‘respectable’ return on capital employed, Vittal said the company’s portfolio was resilient and diverse, with 30% coming from Africa operations, India wireless contributing 50% and the balance from the fast-growing digital and enterprise businesses.

“This portfolio gives us a unique ability to withstand risks by being solidly positioned for where growth is coming from,” he said.

“This expansion will give us our fair market share, and provide tailwinds to the business,” Vittal said at Airtel’s December quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

In the 150 cities, Airtel will use 5G with high speeds, going up to 500 Mbps, to pivot customers to move to high-value postpaid services, to boost average revenue per user (Arpu) and stickiness with the service. Airtel will also use data science to predict demand patterns across all its businesses to deploy resources to build better coverage, which will drive efficiencies even as it invests in building network infrastructure in these areas.

The carrier will also focus on building better engagements with enterprise business customers in these 150 cities through more investments in CPaas, IoT and cloud, to generate more business from the existing set of 500 enterprises.

On reducing sales and distribution costs, Vittal said 80,470 high cost sites have been identified where solutions to reduce the operating costs will be found over the next six to nine months. “5G could be a capacity offload for 4G, so we’re looking at squeezing out 4G capacity investments and direct it towards 5G,” he said.

Reiterating the need for tariffs to rise to ₹300 to get a ‘respectable’ return on capital employed, Vittal said the company’s portfolio was resilient and diverse, with 30% coming from Africa operations, India wireless contributing 50% and the balance from the fast-growing digital and enterprise businesses.

“This portfolio gives us a unique ability to withstand risks by being solidly positioned for where growth is coming from,” he said. Livemint