'We expect over 100% growth for our data business'

Airtel has integrated Kolkata, West Bengal and Orissa into one circle, making it Airtel’s third largest circle in India. In an interview with Pradipta Mukherjee, Airtel’s newly elected CEO for West Bengal and Orissa Deepak Srivastava says that the move will help the company make quicker decisions at a local level as well as connect better with the rural pockets. Edited Excerpts:

What has been the biggest developments after you joined?
We have integrated Kolkata, West Bengal and Orissa in one circle, which is expected to give better scope of expansion and decision-making at a local level. This will also help us connect at a local or rural level better and take independent decisions at the state level. This is the third largest circle right now with 10 million subscribers, next only to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

What are Airtel’s focus areas right now in West Bengal and Orissa?
Going forward, we expect over 100 per cent growth for our data business, as the base is small right now. Voice currently makes up 90 per cent of our revenues and value-added-services, including SMSes, contribute rather small right now. Also, we expect to concentrate on rural pockets as the telecom penetration level in rural Bengal is 30 per cent compared to other states where it is over 50 per cent. There would not be much of a tariff difference between rural and urban Bengal because this is already one of the cheapest telecom circles in India. Another focus area is Airtel’s potential for convergence of its various services. We have broadband, DTH and mobility, which could be combined to come up with bundled offers. We are currently evaluating various possibilities.

Value-added-services is another focus area. For instance, we have launched ‘Airtel Jobs on Mobile’, which is a unique utilitarian and livelihood-enhancement service. This service allows a user to define a job search criteria through either USSD & SMS for the mass segment or through WAP and get alerts on the best job matches as and when they become available. The service, through its contextual, vertical search engine, scours millions of postings across leading job content partners. The service partners with and delivers job postings from content partners like Naukri.com, TimesJobs.com, Monsterindia.com, Sulekha.com, ClickJobs.com and the Deccan Herald group.

Would number portability affect your average revenue per user (ARPU)?
Number portability will come into being and this will make telecom operators focus more on quality because number portability will come at a cost and subscribers willing to change service providers would do so only for better quality options. So, like all other telecom operators, Airtel too would concentrate on building better networking and covering those pockets in Bengal where telecom reach is difficult or has not been established yet.