Airtel to double 4G network by next fiscal, says Sunil Bharti Mittal

Flush with an investment outlay of $3 billion a year on networks, telecom firm Bharti Airtel Ltd plans to double its 4G (fourth generation) network by next fiscal as it gears up to take on competition, including the much-awaited foray of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries group.

“We have decided to roll out (4G). We have 20,000 base station now, in March, and we will be doing another 20,000 next year,” Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said in Barcelona. Mittal said funds would not be a constraint for the company’s expansion plans as it is spending $3 billion every year on networks alone, excluding spectrum, and its 2G (second generation) and 3G (third generation) roll-outs are among the most expensive in the country.

The company will be rolling out mobile tower sites to use its 20 megahertz (MHz) broadband wireless access spectrum, which Mittal said is “life saving” as 3G networks are now choking in metros and tier 1 cities. Companies, including Airtel, at present have only 5 MHz of 3G spectrum in select parts of country and the government has put another 5 MHz on the block of 3G spectrum in the ongoing auction. Speaking on the sidelines of recently held Mobile World Congress, Mittal said Airtel, through its newly inked partnership with China Mobile, will try to bring down price of the smartphones that can support all networks, to below Rs.6,000 apiece in a year to push usage of networks.

“In my view, in 12 months time you will have $100 smartphones. You already have $100 smartphones. What I am saying is it should be multi-mode, multi-band. Customer says give me good speed, good quality network so if he drops from 4G, he must connect to 3G and if he drops from 3G he must connect to 2G,” Mittal said. He said the partnership with China Mobile gives Airtel an “economy of scale” and it will be able to lower its capital expenditure significantly.

Mittal said driving down cost of equipments, devices, setting up standards for next generation technology like 5G (fifth generation) and exchange of best practices are main objectives of this partnership without any equity transaction. “Funding is not a constraint. Every year we are spending $3 billion into networks other than spectrum. Our roll-outs of 3G, 2G are the most expensive roll-out in the country,” he said. On the growth potential of 4G networks in the country, Mittal said Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm put together will be 10% of China Mobile’s 4G network by 2015-16.