The Hindu Business Line : ‘Bharti Airtel always welcomes new players’

New Delhi, Oct. 31 Massive growth in subscriber base has propelled Bharti Airtel’s profits to new high. Business Line caught up with Mr Manoj Kohli, President, Bharti Airtel, to know whether the company can sustain the growth levels given the uncertain policy on spectrum and new players waiting to come into the market.

Would scarcity in spectrum hit Bharti’s ability to get more subscribers going forward?

This is an industry issue. We hope that the Government will make available adequate spectrum to existing operators like us. In the meantime, the industry has filed an appeal in the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal in this matter. We are also deploying additional equipment wherever we can to address quality of service issues.

Do you see more growth coming from rural areas now that the urban areas are saturated?

In fact, urban areas continue to have a high growth rate with new segments like children taking a mobile connection. Therefore spectrum is needed in these areas as well. Having said that, the rural uptake has also been good and we are now hoping to expand our coverage to over 3.5 lakh towns and villages by end of March 2008.

There are as many as 46 new players wanting to enter the mobile segment. Is your market share under threat?

Bharti has been a product of liberalisation and therefore we always welcome competition. Bharti has always benefited from more competition and therefore if more players want to enter the market, then it is good for the industry. However, it should be ensured that there is enough spectrum for existing and new players.

Do you think Indian mobile tariffs have hit the lowest levels?

It is still a very dynamic and competitive market and therefore we see the per minute charges going down further. This will bring down the ARPU (average revenue per user) levels also down. But our fundamentals are strong enough to bear the impact of lower tariffs.

What is the status of your plans to hive off the tower infrastructure into a new company?

We are in the process of demerging the tower company and it should be completed by the end of this year. Once that is done we will take a decision on bringing in equity partners. Partnership could even be other operators.

What about new markets?

We are looking at Asia including West Asia, Africa and other regions for expanding our global footprint.

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‘Bharti Airtel always welcomes new players’

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