gopal vittal: 5G auction strategy to depend on final reserve price finalized by govt: Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal

Bharti Airtel 's CEO Gopal Vittal said that the reduction in 5G reserve prices has not been adequate and termed the development as "disappointing". He said that Airtel 's 5G auction strategy will depend on the final reserve price finalized by the government

"As you are aware, TRAI recently announced the long-awaited recommendations for reserve prices for the next spectrum auction. The industry had hoped for a massive reduction in prices. While there has been a reduction, it has not been adequate and is in that sense disappointing. I will not comment on our strategy and approach since it is dependent on the final reserve price finalized by the government," Vittal said during the earnings call speech.

Vittal claimed that Airtel is "fully ready for 5G" with its core network, radio network and transport network being fully future proofed.

"In our transport network, the power of our home broadband business is now enabling us to connect more and more towers directly on Fiber which will make our network ready to deal with massive increases in capacity. Our Sub-Ghz footprint across the country now gives us deep indoor coverage," he added,

Vittal said that Airtel's expansion of mobile coverage footprint now allows it to provide broadband connectivity across 795,000 villages and towns of India.

Airtel's ARPU reached Rs 178 in the quarter, which he said, was a strong move towards its first goal post of Rs 200 and eventual target of Rs 300 ARPU.

"The industry has seen relatively lower net additions in this quarter due to two reasons. First, some SIM consolidation at the lower end. Second, some moderation on 4G net adds primarily due to shortages in semiconductors and rising costs of these chip sets. As a result, several OEM's have placed greater emphasis on prioritizing higher priced smartphones. Despite these trends, we have been able to add 5.2 million 4G customers and crossed the 200 million milestone," Vittal explained.

On postpaid, Airtel added 2 lakh customers further strengthening this segment and getting to decisive leadership. "With less than 4% penetration of postpaid in India and a reduction in postpaid to prepaid price ratios, we believe that postpaid is a very promising opportunity for us going forward."

Vittal termed Airtel's enterprise business as "a jewel" in its portfolio, which has been consistently delivering growth.

"We had another quarter of double digit growth. Net of voice which is declining this business is growing all other segments either in high teens or even faster. Our portfolio comprises of connectivity, CPaas, IoT, Cyber Security, Cloud and Data Centres. We continue to outperform our peers in each of the segments and expand market share," he added.

He said that Airtel's entire go to market organization has been re-tooled so as to enable them to go "both Wide (To expand our presence in accounts where our market share is low) and Deep (To accelerate penetration of those parts of our portfolio where our customers have still not chosen us)."

Airtel's broadband business saw 10% sequential revenue growth, driven by continued strong customer additions. Vittal said that the roll out is gathering pace and Airtel clocked 1.85 million new home passes this quarter.

"Our innovation through the digital Local Cable operator partnership model has enabled us to be present in 847 cities, an addition of 175 cities this quarter. We believe that this category will grow to over 40 million homes by 2025 and we are well poised to gain a significant share of this growth," he added.

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