Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor sees many new partnerships between India and China

SHANGHAI: Telecom major Bharti Airtel is expecting many new partnerships between Indian and Chinese telecom industry in coming years, a top company executive said today.

"We see many new partnerships emerging. What would be important is product innovation, play of frequency and magnifying scale of product centric environment," Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor said, while talking about ecosystem in India and China at GSMA Mobile Asia Expo 2012.

Airtel recently deployed India's first 4G-network-based on LTE technology in partnership with Chinese telecom gear maker ZTE and also partnered with Huawei for launch of the services in Bangalore.

"The size of ecosystem in these two countries (India and China) can actually change the tide and business case for many future applications in technology. LTE (Long Term Evolution) happens to be just one of them," Kapoor said.

He added that in last three years, the volume of industry has grown three times and telecom industry has potential to reshape many industries around it like banking, education and others.

Kapoor also attributed the success of developing ecosystem to the respective governments.

"The biggest change has come from government and regulator who are putting their heads together to find out where the next 50 Mhz spectrum is coming from," Kapoor said.

Airtel sees data and VAS as big opportunities to combat low ARPU

2012-06-20 07:01:47, CHINA

Sanjay Kapoor, CEO of Bharti Airtel - India and South Asia.

Telecom Lead @ GSMA MOBILE ASIA EXPO 2012: Bharti Airtel sees data and related value-added services as the biggest opportunities in India.

India has more than 900 million mobile users and Bharti Airtel is the number one telecom operator in terms of both revenue and subscriber base.

However, 3G is yet to take off in India. Recently, Bharti Airtel and several other operators including Idea Cellular, Vodafone, Aircel, Reliance Communications, BSNL and MTNL announced significant reduction in 3G data tariffs.

Fixed broadband is also not growing significantly. Currently, the number of broadband users is around 14 million.

"The best way to combat the challenges presented by declining tariffs, growing network operating expenses and high regulatory costs is to look to these areas for future growth," said Sanjay Kapoor, CEO of Bharti Airtel - India and South Asia.

Bharti Airtel is the first Indian operator to launch TD-LTE service in India. The mobile giant recently launched 4G in Kolkata and Bangalore.

Providing affordable Internet access to existing urban customers through broadband wireless will be critical but rural areas could be even more important.

Kapoor said while there is untapped potential in India's expansive rural markets in the voice segment, the next big thing after the success of the voice story in India could be data.

Rural mobile penetration currently stands at just under 40 percent, leaving significant room for network expansion.

The ability to make large investments in the network is required particularly in India to take broadband to the masses.

Indian operators are in the process of expanding their 3G networks across the country.

With the high costs of building this infrastructure in rural areas, the inclusion of data-enabled services would be a good use of resources, mobilebusinessbriefing.comreported.

"Considering the high cost of operation and infrastructure required for rural expansion, the mobile platform is the most efficient and effective way to offer various services like financial inclusion, health and education in rural India," he said.

Kapoor feels India is at the cusp of a data revolution with the demand for data products and services increasing with feature phone and smartphone penetration. Driven by India's young population, this data revolution has the capability of bridging the digital divide between the developed world and the developing world when it comes to data consumption.

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