The Hindu Business Line : Geared for growth

Manoj Kohli, President and CEO, Bharti Airtel, was recently given the charge to spearhead Bharti's telecom business. With Sunil Mittal relinquishing operational responsibilities in the company, Kohli has the huge responsibility of taking India's largest private telecom company into the next generation of services. eWorld caught up with Kohli to talk about the challenges ahead.

What new services can customers of Airtel expect in the next one year (2007-08)?

For an operator to be a leader in the telecom market it is important to have certain key differentiators. As leaders, we believe the key differentiators in the highly dynamic Indian telecom market are Enhanced Customer Experience via highest quality network, seamless customer service and consistent brand experience, and Speed to market i.e. greater network reach and being the first to launch innovative products in the market.

Airtel has always been at the forefront to provide the latest products and services to its customers keeping in view their needs of connectivity anywhere, anytime, and entertainment on the move.

In the coming year, i.e. 2007-08, Airtel customers can expect a lot on the Music and Messaging applications.

Another trend that customers can look forward to is Mobile Commerce, wherein the mobile phone will play a much evolved role with functions such as remote payments, mobile wallet, money transfer, etc. Bharti Airtel's IT & Innovation team has already made significant progress in this area.

When will Bharti introduce 3G services assuming that the policy should be announced this month? Is there hype on 3G or does it offer real opportunity for operators?

There's more for the user - S. SUBRAMANIUM

Bharti is in a position to launch 3G services within 6-9 months of allocation of 3G spectrum by the Government. The policy announcement shall be only the first step towards the allocation process as there would be related formalities as per the policy to be completed and the vacation of the spectrum to happen in parallel.

3G is definitely a good opportunity for Indian operators. The timing of 3G in India is also very appropriate given the fact that the technology has already gone through the learning pains and is now a mature and stable technology with the originally acclaimed benefits of broadband wireless data now being available.

With Government's focus on broadband and initiatives in this regard, 3G offers a viable business potential from a futuristic standpoint.

From the customers' standpoint, 3G is undoubtedly a technology that will bring with it a whole host of benefits as it supports a lot of voice, data and video applications at the same time.

Therefore, be it higher speed downloads, audio and video streaming, multi player gaming experience and newer applications in the field on m-commerce and tele-medicine, all of it will be possible.

What is Bharti's strategy on WiMax? Will the company do a mix of WiMax and WCDMA or choose one technology?

Bharti is already deploying WiMax. We clearly see both the technologies, WiMax and WCDMA, complementing each other rather than competing. We see ourselves adopting both the technologies in complementary roles.

What target has Bharti kept for itself for mobile and broadband for 2007-08 in terms of subscriber base?

All I can say is that by 2010 the market is estimated to have 400-500 million subscribers.

We are looking at a market share of at least 25 per cent, i.e. 125 million subscribers. We have stepped up our Broadband penetration plans and will continue to lead the wireless market share with our passion to deliver the best to our customers.

With the entry of BT, AT&T, C&W and Verizon, how does Bharti propose to take a larger share of the enterprise segment?

Airtel feels that the entry of the international carriers will increase competition in India that would lead to higher focus on product innovation and customer service. This would be beneficial both for the customers and for the market as a whole.

As these new international carriers do not own network infrastructure in India, they will source infrastructure from local telecom operators.

Since Airtel has strong local infrastructure capability, Airtel will look forward to jointly address the market with these carriers. Airtel has a strong relationship with some of the large, blue chip companies of India and is introducing new products and services to gain higher share of the telecom spends of these accounts. Thus, Airtel is well positioned to grow along with the extraordinary growth being experienced by our top customers.

How does the entry of Vodafone change things for Bharti?

We have always welcomed competition. However, our work philosophy is not to try and outdo others, but to focus on being the best for our customers.

In fact, we have an understanding with Vodafone on infrastructure sharing as well as on NLD, ILD and leased line services. Bharti will be the preferred vendor for Vodafone who will give 50 per cent of its in-bound international roaming traffic to Bharti Airtel for a stipulated period.

Passive Infrastructure sharing is a strategic decision for us and we are open for infrastructure sharing with other service providers as well.

With Vodafone, we have an understanding to partner at the backend for Passive Infrastructure and welcome them as another player at the front end.

Could you point out two big trends in the telecom sector that will happen over the next year?

The telecom market is perhaps the fastest evolving sector on all counts. There are two key trends that I see will dominate telecom services over the next few years — Digital Media Convergence: Delivery of digital media will happen through multiple channels — Mobile, DSL, DTH, IPTV, 3G, HSDPA, using common back end and service delivery platforms. Mobile phones becoming more than a communication tool: The mobile phone will be more than a communication tool. It will be the ubiquitous entertainment and communication device.

Are there areas of concern?

Spectrum availability is the key enabler for the growth of telecom market in India. I feel spectrum allocation needs to be expedited to help us provide enhanced services to our customers.

tkt@thehindu.co.in

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