Page 29 - SAMENA ELITE - Jan-Mar 2024

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Airtel Plans Fixed Wireless on SA for Factories

Bharti Airtel will launch fixed wire- Vittal was speaking to analysts on to 16%. He also said that of the total
less access services for factories Tuesday, a day after the Sunil Mit- smartphone shipments, 60% to 80%
on the 5G stand-alone architecture tal-promoted telecom services were 5G-enabled, depending on the
(SA), which will be different from the provider posted a 55% year-on-year price point.
non–stand-alone architecture that it increase in net profit to ₹2,442 crore
currently uses to offer 5G services to in the December quarter, on consoli- Airtel’s Arpu had increased organi-
consumers. dated revenues of ₹37,900 crore. cally, helped by users migrating from
feature phone to smartphone, post-
FWA is a technology that doesn’t need The average revenue per user, or paid data monetization, international
fibre or copper to provide high-speed Arpu, a key metric of profitability, roaming, and subscribers shifting to
internet within consumer or enterprise bettered market expectations at ₹208 higher-price plans, despite no tariff
premises, and was recently launched per month, up 7.7% y-o-y and higher hikes. He, however, said that Arpus
by Airtel and Jio. than ₹203 it posted in the quarter will move up substantially when ‘tariff
ended September 2023, helped by repair’ takes place. “The real improve-
“The launch of our fixed wireless acquisition of high-value customers ment will come only if there is tariff
access network will be on SA. In some and improved realizations. repair. It’s not a question of if but more
factories, in plants, we may actually of when," he said.
deploy SA. This is in the short term, On commercialization of 5G, Vit-
but in the more medium term, as tal said that 5G should not have a In response to analysts seeking com-
more and more traffic shifts from 4G different pricing, but noted that free ments on Jio asking for closure of 2G
networks to 5G networks, we will take data being offered by existing 4G networks in India, Vittal said that 2G
our existing spectrum bands, refarm and 5G plans were the headwinds to contribution to Airtel’s business was
to move to an all SA network. We’re 5G monetization. He added that for about 17%, and in single digits in mar-
already in the midst of a trial," Bharti monetization, ‘tariff repair’ needs to kets like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala,
Airtel’s managing director Gopal Vittal take place, referring to the need for Mumbai, and Delhi. “My sense is that
said. mobile tariffs in India to rise to provide in the next few years, you should start
adequate return on capital employed. seeing substantial, almost disappear-
He added that trials for SA were being “5G has become really about free ing of 2G," he added.
done in a north Indian city with 30 data today in India, so there is no real
sites. Currently, Reliance Jio is the only monetization on the consumer side. I Vittal said that more sites will be
other carrier to offer 5G services on SA do not believe, at the same time, that added in five circles—Maharashtra,
architecture using the 700 Mhz band. 5G should have differential pricing... Gujarat, MP Chhattisgarh, Kerala and
Experts noted that Airtel would not monetization is about overall tariff Bengal—where it lags the market
need to use the sub-Ghz spectrum for repair, but free data is obviously a leader. The executive also noted that
SA architecture. headwind on any sort of 5G moneti- two platforms developed internally by
SA refers to stand-alone technology zation," he said. Airtel—Airtel Work and omnichannel
which works independent of any consumer service – will be replicated
underlying layer such as 4G network, Vittal noted that Airtel has about 65 in a few countries in Africa where Airtel
while NSA, or non–stand-alone, works million 5G users on its network. The has its own operations.
in tandem with the 4G layer. Jio uses total contribution of 5G users to over-
5G SA on top of its indigenous end-to- all smartphones is expected to rise to
end 5G stack. 25% by March 2025, from present 15%

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