Airtel raises year's capex estimate to Rs 25,000 cr

Analysts say the telecom industry's medium-term outlook has brightened, with accelerated consolidation and exit of smaller cos

Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest telecom operator, has raised its estimate of capital expenditure for this financial year to Rs 25,000 crore, from the earlier Rs 20,000 crore. 

Nilanjan Roy, its global finance head, said as there was an explosion of data traffic in India, the company had decided it should hasten the roll-out of fourth-generation (4G) technology, beside the building of additional capacity and fibre connectivity.  

“Consequently, our capex forecast for the year is up from the initial guidance (expectation). We believe advancement of future capex to provide best broadband data coverage will augment our growth and revenue market share ambition,”