Bharti Airtel to focus on rural markets to narrow gap with Reliance Jio

Decision on differential 5G pricing may be taken after 6-9 months: Vittal

Bharti Airtel is focusing on rural markets to tap into the growing demand for 4G services in those areas and narrow the gap with market leader Reliance Jio.

Chief Executive Officer Gopal Vittal said 40 per cent of the industry’s net 4G additions are coming from rural areas and the company is using the data science model to target specific growth areas.

“We are sending our people to the field to determine where the opportunity is. Even more important, we have designed and built lower-cost sites that will allow us to expand profitably,” Vittal said at an after-results conference call on Tuesday. 

As of end-September, Airtel had had over 327 million mobile customers.

Jio, which is yet to announce its second-quarter (Q2) results, had 419 million customers as of end-June.

Airtel reported Rs 2,145-crore net profit in Q2 — a growth of 89 per cent year-on-year. Growth was led by 22 per cent increase in revenue and increase in 4G subscriber additions.

The company is also focusing on winning quality customers and converting prepaid users to postpaid to reduce churn and increase the average revenue per user.

“Given the financially pressing situation that one of the players in the industry is going through, we feel the moment is ripe for Airtel pulling ahead and being the most aspirational brand in India,” he said.

Airtel rolled out the 5G service in eight cities last month and is targeting pan-Indian coverage by 2024.

“All of Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme devices are now ready. Samsung and OnePlus will also be fully ready in the next few weeks. Apple soon thereafter,” said Vittal.

Airtel has not made any changes to the tariff so far and offers 4G and 5G networks at the same price. Vittal said the company is currently building its 5G network and may take a decision on differential pricing in the next six to nine months.

While Airtel has begun its 5G roll-out using the non-standalone mode, it has also started testing the standalone mode on 5G.  

“This mode may be relevant for some enterprise-use cases. While these use-cases are very niche, we are already doing our trials to serve customers where needed. We are also testing our millimetre wave spectrum for fixed wireless access,” said Vittal.