GOPAL VITTAL
Bharti Airtel says it has no desire to buy out Vodafone Plc’s share and up stake in Indus Towers
Bharti Airtel denies plans to increase its stake in Indus Towers, contrary to reports. Airtel asserts its commitment to maintaining Indus's financial stability, crucial for its telecom infrastructure. Speculations of Airtel acquiring Vodafone's stake could potentially grant it control, though Airtel refrains from such intentions.
Talk of the Tower: Airtel eyes Vodafone's 21.05% in Indus
Airtel is the biggest shareholder in Indus, with 47.95%; Vodafone Group has 21.05% and 30.97% is with the public, according to the tower company's latest filing with the BSE. A buyout of the Vodafone stake will boost Airtel's shareholding to 69%. Indus shares ended 2.9% higher at ₹359.65 on the BSE on Tuesday, giving it ₹96,923.41 crore market capitalisation.
Bharti Airtel's merger deal with Dialog Axiata in Sri Lanka gets regulatory approval
Under the definitive agreement signed by Dialog Axiata, Axiata Group Berhad, and Bharti Airtel, Dialog will acquire 100% of the issued shares in Airtel Lanka. In consideration of the acquisition, Dialog will issue ordinary voting shares amounting to 10.355% of the total issued shares to Bharti Airtel by way of a share swap, the companies announced in a joint statement.
Bharti Airtel, Dialog & Axiata Group to merge operations in Sri Lanka
Bharti Airtel has announced a merger with Dialog and Axiata Group in Sri Lanka. Under the agreement, Dialog will acquire all shares of Airtel Lanka, and in exchange, Bharti Airtel will receive ordinary voting shares equivalent to 10.355% of Dialog's total issued shares. The merger is pending approval from Dialog's shareholders and regulatory authorities, including the Colombo Stock Exchange.
Telecom firms struggle to monetise amid incomplete 5G rollout
India recently became the fastest 5G rollout nation in the world. The country’s top two carriers, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, have collectively splurged around $25 billion in buying 5G airwaves and launching their next-generation wireless broadband services. Between them, they have 165 million 5G customers. But neither of them has seen any serious monetisation of their 5G businesses even 18 months after they introduced next-gen networks.
Airtel, Jio hand out handset offers for 5G takeoff
Bharti Airtel recently announced an exclusive partnership with smartphone company Poco, wherein the 5G smartphone price has been brought down to ₹8,799 along with data bundling. It is likely to come out with similar partnerships with other handset makers, people familiar with the matter said. Reliance Jio, on its part, has been working alongside Reliance Retail to offer discounts on smartphones.
- Go To Page 1
Gopal Vittal asks Airtel executives to be on ground today to fix customer issues
Bharti Airtel's managing director, Gopal Vittal, has called on the company's 19,000 employees across India to cancel business meetings on Tuesday and spend the entire day with customers to address service challenges they face. This is part of a national brand-building drive to position Airtel as a customer-obsessed telco, seeking direct market feedback on its 2G, 4G, and 5G mobile operations and home broadband services.
Cash-strapped Vi holds out hope for struggling 5G gear companies
Vodafone Idea (Vi) is set to benefit from a slump in demand for 5G network gear globally, including India, which has impacted earnings at companies like Nokia and Ericsson. Despite the Indian telecom operator's financial precariousness, global network equipment vendors are likely to prefer working with Vi, which still has over 200 million users but needs to expand 4G network capacity and start 5G rollouts to compete effectively with rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
Telcos come out with tiered tariff plans to increase revenue per user
All three telcos have realised that higher-priced post-paid family plans bundling multiple mobile connections, attractive data allowances and OTT streaming app subscriptions (Netflix, Prime, Hotstar) is the ideal way to improve ARPU - a key performance metric - in the immediate absence of headline tariff hikes.
Telco revenues may surge to Rs 2.78 lakh crore in FY25
Revenues stood at ₹1.7 lakh crore in FY16 with the sector having more than 10 private companies. This was before Reliance Jio made its debut the following year. Revenues are expected to touch ₹2.78 lakh crore in FY25 in an industry comprising only three private operators - Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi).
DoT working on norms for satcom spectrum allocation
"Terms and conditions in the licence will make it clear that spectrum taken administratively can't be used to serve retail mobile consumers," an official said. DoT is expected to shortly write to Trai to provide the details on what terms and conditions should be incorporated in the licence.
'Free data a headwind against 5G monetisation': Bharti Airtel MD Gopal Vittal
Gopal Vittal, MD of Bharti Airtel, expressed concerns that offering unlimited free 5G data could hinder the monetization of this next-generation technology. He dismissed the idea of implementing differential pricing for 5G, noting that only a small fraction of customers would opt for higher-priced plans. Despite having over 65 million 5G subscribers, Vittal acknowledged that this segment represents a modest proportion of the overall smartphone user base, approximately 15-16%.
Vi hasn’t made much headway in clearing Indus Towers’ dues: Gopal Vittal, MD, Bharti Airtel
While talking to ET, Airtel MD Gopal Vittal said that there has not been “much headway” in getting Vodafone Idea to clear the dues owed to Indus Towers, and that it is a matter of “serious concern” for all shareholders. He also talked about 5G, AI, and satcom.
Satellite communication not a threat to telcos, says Bharti Airtel managing director Gopal Vittal
Bharti Airtel Managing Director Gopal Vittal stated that satellite communication, or satcom, is not a threat to telecom operators, as the services will be complementary, and pricing will remain at a premium to mobile. Vittal sees satellite services as an opportunity, especially for distributing services to remote locations, such as ships or airlines.
Telecom Bill to bring predictability in spectrum-related matters: Gopal Vittal
The proposed law, Vittal said, suggests ground-breaking reforms by streamlining India's licensing landscape, and aims to simplify the current convoluted system, which includes various types of licensing (license, registration, permission), into a more cohesive and efficient authorization-based regime.
All about e-SIMs: Benefits, activation process, and essential tips
The e-SIM, or embedded SIM, is a digital SIM allows users to activate a mobile plan without the need for a physical SIM. Here's all about eSIMs, the process to activate, benefits, and other things you neeed to know.
Airtel guides users on embracing e-SIM technology
In the email communication, Vittal went on to explain that consumers can use multiple mobile numbers on a single e-SIM, should one choose to do so and that it is easy to change devices with an e-SIM. “Additionally, in instances of theft, if your device gets stolen, it will be that much harder for criminals to get rid of your e-SIM, since they are unlike the traditional SIMs that could be physically removed from phones. This will also make a lost smartphone easier to track,” Vittal’s email said.
Airtel may take lead in raising tariffs, won't charge extra for 5G for now: MD Gopal Vittal
Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom company, may take the lead in implementing overall tariff hikes but will not charge extra for 5G services at this time. Gopal Vittal, the managing director, emphasized that the focus is on making the telecom industry viable through vibrant competition and affordable tariffs, with financial viability. Vittal also raised concerns about international tech players testing the delivery of messages, including OTPs, over platforms other than SMS, as it can lead to phishing, fraud, and spam issues for which telcos can be held liable.
Airtel won’t buy 700 MHz in next auction, will only target spectrum expiring in 2024: Top executive
Bharti Airtel has stated that it will not purchase expensive 700 MHz spectrum in the next 5G spectrum sale. Instead, the company will focus on acquiring small chunks of spectrum in markets where its current holdings are expiring. Airtel plans to repurpose its mid-band airwaves for 5G services once a larger percentage of smart devices become 5G-enabled. The company's management also emphasized the need for tariffs to increase in order to raise average revenue per user (ARPU), and expressed hope of reaching an ARPU target of Rs 300 in the future.
Airtel’s Gopal Vittal earned more than chairman Sunil Mittal in FY23: Annual report
As per Airtel’s latest annual report for FY23, Vittal's gross annual remuneration at Rs 16.84 crore was a tad higher than Mittal's Rs 16.77 crore.
No plans to launch locked feature phone: Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal
All Jio's customers are 4G network ones and the new feature phone launch, much like the JioPhone in 2016, is seen as a strategy to tap into basic phone users yet to upgrade to 4G, analysts said. While the launch of the JioPhone did have an impact on Airtel back then, the market has since shifted and now the 2G users are fewer, explained Vittal.
Subscribers back on the DTH pitch, all thanks to IPL
Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO of Bharti Airtel, said the DTH business saw strong net additions in April and May. He also stated that the company's strategy of aggregating all video content with broadband has paid rich dividends for the company.
Industry pricing structure should change, pay more for higher usage: Gopal Vittal
India’s current telecom services pricing architecture, he said, is more of a one-size fits all approach that and can’t work in the long run as a customer, typically, pays the same independent of the level of usage. “Our pricing structure is broken, and (data) allowances should ideally be linked to price as is the case in markets like Indonesia, Thailand or Philippines,” Vittal said at Airtel's fiscal fourth quarter earnings call Wednesday.
Airtel 5G to be in 7000 towns, 100,000 villages by March 2024: Vittal
Speaking at Ficci Frames 2023 in Mumbai, Vittal said that currently, there is different regulation for different content delivery pipelines - cable, DTH, and streaming applications.
Big challenge lies in finding 5G use cases: Telecom executives
Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal last week said that operators are rolling out a "supercomputer" in the form of 5G services, but the challenge is the lack of applications that can truly utilise its capabilities.
Vi, Airtel back tariff plan to make consumers pay as per their usage
But that could be difficult to implement on ground as market leader Reliance Jio is believed to be opposed to the tiering of price plans - where data allowance is linked to the tariff plan - as it feels such an exercise can complicate tariff structures, confuse consumers and eventually hurt data usage. Analysts said while the pay-as-you-use model or tier-based pricing model can boost telco revenue, it can work only if implemented collectively by all operators.
Airtel to push 5G in markets with high 4G traffic, says MD Gopal Vittal
Airtel would use 5G services as a pivot to grow its high-value postpaid business and advance some capex spends to achieve its targeted pan-India 5G services rollout by March 2024, Vittal said.
ARPUs rising to Rs 300-levels critical, will happen in due course: Airtel CEO
"We believe that ARPU needs to go up and the ARPU of Rs 300 is critical for a respectable return of capital employed. And that is something, we hope will happen in due course of time," Vittal said during an analyst call, a day after the company reported its Q3 FY23 scorecard.
Load More
