There is oversupply in mobile internet category: Himanshu Kapania

Interview with CEO, Idea Cellular

Idea Chief Executive Himanshu Kapania talks about new growth areas, the future of mobile internet and challenges in an interaction with Sadananda Mohapatra. Excerpts:

You said mobile internet realisation dropped during the quarter because of intense competition that led to oversupply in the market. Does it mean that your rollout of 4G could have waited?

I am not sure about it. You can never be right. We had to make a start at some point. So, launching a year earlier or later does not matter. But, yes, we are in a short phase of oversupply in the mobile internet category. The market is yet to evolve as only the urban, elite people are using mobile internet. The market will grow once there is mass adoption of internet.

Now that you have made investments and launched 4G in some circles, what is the way forward? How will you market the product to first-time users?

We will have to wait till the consumer choice evolves. A consumer in rural market is well versed with voice operations, the same has to be the case for internet usage. Also, a lot of effort is needed to create demand for it. Since analysts are saying we are at the cusp of the fourth phase of industrial revolution where everything else will be connected, the behaviour of consumers is bound to change. Soon, they will use the virtual world to fulfil their need against doing everything manually.

What will be the future of telecom companies? Will they all become internet providers? What kind of business model do you foresee?

First of all, we are a mobile company and we will remain that. We see digital content as the market for the next phase of growth. We will create platforms so that a consumer can access music, video and play games over mobile phones. We also see payments bank as another area of increasing the habit of consumers to go for mobile internet. Both digital content platform and payments bank are the next growth areas, which will complement our core business verticals.