Airtel stakes its 5G revenue on a better network

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

Gopal Vittal, managing director and chief executive of Bharti Airtel Ltd, said the company intends to use a multifaceted strategy for future commercial growth. This will increase network performance in 150 cities while expanding 5G service from 70 cities to 300 cites by March 2024, he added.

In addition, the telecommunications service provider will increase investments in its digital businesses, including cloud, IoT, and CPaaS. It plans to expand its coverage into 40,000 community clusters and 60,000 new villages, cut operating costs at 80,000 high-cost sites, and shift a bit of 4G capacity investments to 5G as customers transition to the newest services.

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

Vittal mentioned that 80,470 high cost sites have been identified where solutions to reduce the operating costs will be put in place 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 added.

To increase average revnue per user (ARPU) along with customer loyalty, Airtel plans to deploy high-speed 5G in 150 cities, with download speeds of up to 500 Mbps.

In order to increase business from the current pool of 500 firms, the telco will concentrate on improving engagements with enterprise business customers in these 150 cities by increasing investments in CPaaS, IoT, and cloud.

To earn a respectable return on capital invested, tariffs must once again be raised to Rs 300 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," he added.

Talking on the expansion of 5G services into the rural areas Vittal mentioned that it will hinge upon the adoption of 5G smartphones in those markets. “The rollout is going to happen across urban India by March 2024, the pace of the rollout beyond urban India is something that will be dictated by how the 5G devices shape out," he stated.

In a breakdown of the number of 5G-ready devices in India, he claimed that while the penetration is only aound 9% in sates like Bihar, metro areas like Delhi have 15% of 5G-enabled devices.

“We have to look at where the devices are likely to come over the next 6-9 months and plan a rollout, in addition to the coverage that we will provide in whichever cities that we have decided to go," Vittal mentioned.