Outdoor unit launch soon, AirFiber service nationwide by year end: Airtel

Pegs home broadband market at 60 million, lower than Jio's 200 million claim

In the next few months, Bharti Airtel will commercially launch an outdoor unit, to boost its wireless home broadband service. This is set to expand nationwide by the end of the year, Bharti Airtel chief executive officer (CEO) Gopal Vittal said.

Vittal said the company has decided to bet on an outdoor unit, orders for which have already been placed. It will provide optimal coverage within and outside the home.

In August, the company launched Airtel Xstream AirFiber, India's first 5G wireless Wi-Fi service designed to provide internet to areas without fibre-based connections in Delhi and Mumbai. Since then, Reliance Jio has also launched its own AirFiber services.

Vittal said Airtel AirFiber will be covered nationwide by the year end.

He also pegged the market at 60 million homes, much lower than Reliance Jio's estimate of 200 million.

“The total addressable market will not certainly be 200 million homes, because many homes will not be able to afford Rs 1,000 a month on telecom expenses,” he said.

The CEO stressed that such fixed wireless access (FWA) solutions will complement fibre connections for the time being due to the prices being the same.

“The experience from telcos in the US suggests that FWA can cause network congestion over time. So eventually, there has to be a concerted move to fibre,” he said.

User transition

Around 70 per cent of the company's subscriber base is now 4G. The gap between the entry-level plans and smartphone plans has compressed to Rs 60 now, Vittal said.

He revealed that in markets such as Gujarat, Delhi, Mumbai, or Kerala, 2G devices now account for less than 7-8 per cent of the total devices.

“But you still have places like Bihar, UP, Odisha and Rajasthan where you have a reasonable chunk of 2G devices. I would imagine that in the next 3-5 years, all of these 2G users will switch to smartphones,” he said.