On Tuesday, India’s 5G auction will begin, with four local companies competing for the chance to bid on the nation’s first 5G spectrum in advance of a 2023 launch. All three of India’s major mobile operators—Reliance Jio, the market leader, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea—will participate in the bidding process.
The fourth candidate’s unexpected admission, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, could still upset the balance. The fifth generation of mobile internet service, or 5G, promises incredibly fast download rates that can support emerging technologies like autonomous cars and virtual reality.
There will be 72 gigahertz of 5G spectrum available for bid, and successful bidders will have 20 years to use it
The four bidders have together contributed $2.7 billion (218 billion Indian rupees) as earnest money, which is necessary to confirm a contract. The quantity of spectrum a corporation desires to purchase is indicated by the amount of earnest money that has been paid.
Jio from Reliance Industries will place competitive bids in the auction since it has deposited the largest earnest money deposit of all the competitors with the government: 140 billion rupees. Other significant mobile carriers that contributed earnest money include Bharti Airtel, which contributed 55 billion rupees, and Vodafone Idea, which contributed 22 billion rupees.
credit: economictimes
The Adani Group conglomerate, whose primary business is infrastructure, only contributed 1 billion Indian rupees as earnest money, entitling it to only make a small number of spectrum bids. There was rumour of a new competitor in the mobile network and data space before the identity of the fourth bidder was made public, which raised hopes for greater bidding.
The business, however, took action to put an end to the rumours. The Adani Group denied having any intentions to enter the mobile phone market when asked by CNBC. Although the tiny amount of earnest money precludes Adani from entering the mobile business statewide, there is still room to buy enough spectrum to serve important markets like Mumbai and New Delhi.
A recent survey was used to claim that there is substantial customer interest in implementing 5G. It was projected that in the first year of 5G’s availability, roughly 40 million smartphone users might switch over.
With a strong network to serve the nation’s digital-first economy, Bharti Airtel will be at the forefront of bringing 5G connectivity to India, according to its chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal. The company has also taken the lead in testing 5G services ahead of the competition. Mittal said that the 5G-ready network of India’s second-largest telecom is already essential to providing stable performance for its customers in a message to shareholders in the telco’s annual report.
According to Mittal, Airtel was the first service provider in India to show off a 5G cloud gaming experience and run a successful 700 MHz spectrum experiment for rural connectivity. A milder regulatory system with fewer procedural hurdles and the government’s important measures announced in September 2021, according to him, have empowered the investment cycle within the industry for expanding and improving India’s digital highways. On July 26, 72 GHz of airwaves valued ‘4.3 lakh crore at reserve pricing’ will be put up for sale in spectrum auctions for the upcoming 5G services.
A new participant, Adani Data Networks, will also compete for some 5G airwaves, primarily for captive private use. NSE are scheduled to participate in the auction.
Credit: economictimes
To reach the 200 million 4G smartphone customer milestone in 2021–2022, NSE gained 21.5 million new 4G users. This development coincided with the activation of recently acquired spectrum during the year.
According to Mittal, the new spectrum increased network reach and high-speed data capacity across circles. “With a stated objective of ARPU (average revenue per user) expansion, your company focused on attracting high quality and discerning customers in both the prepaid and postpaid segments,” Mittal said.
Airtel managing director Gopal Vittal said, “We are fully ready for 5G. Our core network – radio network and transport network – is fully future proofed. Our sub-GHz footprint across the country now gives us deep indoor coverage.”
According to him, the business holds a premium position in the sector and boosted ARPU to ‘178 at the end of fiscal 2021–22, the most in the sector. According to Vittal, the telco experienced its highest-ever net additions to its broadband base, driven by needs for work-from-home and study-from-home opportunities. “The resilience of our customer base was reflected in our ability to realise the full impact of the tariff increase taken in November 2021,” Vittal said.
On Thursday, some Airtel users in India reported experiencing Internet and signal outages. The corporation claims, however, that the services have been restored. The outage was reported in places such as Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, and Guwahati, according to the outage-tracking website DownDetector.
Several people resorted to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with the Airtel outage. In their tweets, the Twitterati mentioned Airtel services and Airtel India and requested a rapid repair to the problem. They complained of no network, being unable to connect to mobile internet, and even having issues with landline internet.
According to DownDetector.com, the outage, which happened after 4 p.m. on Thursday, resulted in over 3,500 complaints on the Airtel website in a short period of time.
Airtel reported that the services were only down for 15 minutes and have since been restored
This is Airtel’s second big outage in as many months. An Airtel blackout occurred in March across places including as Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Kolkata, and Guwahati. In other news, Airtel’s ARPU, a crucial performance parameter for carriers, increased to Rs 178 in the March quarter from Rs 163 in the previous quarter.
Airtel distributor storefront. Udaipur India – May 2020
Analysts predict that the telco’s revenue market share (RMS) would increase to 37 percent by FY24, up from 35.4 percent in the previous quarter.
“Airtel’s domestic wireless business ARPU will improve to ₹250 over the next 4-5 years, which will generate high incremental Ebitda margins and free cash flow to support future investments,” Morgan Stanley said in a note seen by ET. It added that Airtel gained subscriber market share across circles even after maintaining its price premium over Jio-currently at 3-25%. It expects the trend to continue, noting that “Airtel’s price premium over Jio is currently being maintained at 13% in the 4G smartphones daily segment after the last price hike in December 2021”
According to analysts, the phenomenon is represented in the subscriber market share gap between Airtel and Jio shrinking to 3.8 percent in the March quarter from as high as 6% in the quarter to September of FY22.
The Airtel Xstream Box that first launched in 2019 has just received a slash in price in India. The company has now cut the price down of the Xstream Box in the country and is even pairing with another attractive offer as well.
As of right now, the Indian telecom giant has slashed the cost of the Xstream Box by 499 INR or $7 bringing the price tag all the way down to 2,000 INR or $26. The new pricing will only be available to customers who will purchase a new Airtel Digital TV connection along with the Xstream Box option via the company’s official site and authorized dealers.
For now, it seems to be available only for a limited period of time. If you did not already know, the Xstream Box was previously available in the region for a fair price of 2,499 INR or $33. It arrives with support for multiple OTT services, including the likes of Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, SonyLIV, Eros Now, Hungama, and others.
For now, sources that have knowledge of the matter have stated that the updated price package includes a one-year Disney+ Hotstar subscription, along with three months of Amazon Prime Video, SonyLIV, Eros Now, and Hungama as well.
Speaking about the product itself, the Airtel Xstream Box runs on the Android TV OS, which is based on Android 9 Pie OS. It also has access to Google’s Play Store along with numerous other apps. Apart from OTT services, the box also supports traditional DTH services as well. Customers also have to keep in mind that they are required to maintain their Airtel DTH account recharged.
Airtel demonstrated 5G’s high-speed and low-latency capabilities by replicating Kapil Dev’s 175-run ton from India’s 1983 World Cup victory and letting customers watch it in real-time.
The company said in a statement that a special 175 replayed video in 4K mode brought key moments from the match to life, which had no video footage due to a TV technicians’ strike, and that experiences like this will transform the future of video entertainment and take the user experience to the next level.
Live the future of sports & entertainment with our 5G ready network.
We’ve created an in-stadia experience of Kapil Dev’s greatest inning (175*) Catch his live hologram interact with fans & share the experience of making history back in ‘83 against ZIM. #FutureIsAirtel5Gpic.twitter.com/IrdShHKLk1
“With speeds of over 1 Gbps and latency of under 20 ms, more than 50 concurrent users enjoyed a highly personalized 4K video experience of the match on 5G smartphones, with real-time access to multiple camera angles, 360-degree in-stadia view, shot analysis and stats,” the company said.
The showcase also had India’s first 5G powered hologram interactions with Kapil Dev. “The Airtel 5G powered virtual avatar of the legendary cricketer appeared on the stage, to interact with the fans in real-time and walk them through the key moments of his innings,” the company said.
Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel: “The gigabit speeds and millisecond latency of 5G will transform the way we consume entertainment. With 5G based holograms, we will be able to transport virtual avatars to any location and this will be a game-changer for meetings and conferences, LIVE news and will have so many other use cases.”
Airtel 5G trial network has recreated the iconic #Missing175 – a moment that was never captured on camera. This has changed how sports & entertainment will be consumed in the future #FutureIsAirtel5Gpic.twitter.com/aGgHue9yKX
Describing his experience, Kapil Dev added: “I am simply amazed by the power of 5G technology and seeing my digital avatar interact with my fans as if I am actually there. Thank you Airtel for this wonderful effort and bringing to life one of the most important innings of my career.” Airtel used Ericsson 5G Radio in NSA and SA mode on a 3500 MHz band test spectrum allotted by the department of telecom for the demonstration at its Network Experience Center in Manesar (Gurugram).
In India, Airtel is leading the charge for 5G. Airtel exhibited India’s first 5G experience over a live 4G network earlier this year. It also featured India’s first rural 5G trial and the first 5G cloud gaming experience.
Airtel has partnered with major worldwide consulting and technology organisations and brands to test 5G-based solutions as part of 5GforBusiness.
As the saying goes, it’s never too late to start, the Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan said that the much-anticipated fourth-generation or 4G commercial services launch by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is expected in Q2 of fiscal 2022-23, with a purchase order (PO) for network equipment procurement likely to be placed by April.
The introduction of BSNL’s next-generation network has been on hold for more than six years, and the company continues to lose money due to the non-availability of 4G services currently offered by private-sector competitors such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea.
In a letter to the telecom department (DoT) in April 2015, then-BSNL chairman Anupam Shrivastava requested the 2500 MHz frequency spectrum to offer 4G services.
Following a delay in the procurement of specified power-backed radio equipment, BSNL allowed a consortium led by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to test the network within a 120-day timetable, which was eventually extended until December 31, 2021.
The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), a Tata group firm and state-driven research and development (R&D) organization that has emerged as a leading consortium, is now conducting a PoC in Ambala and Chandigarh for network testing and demonstration purposes.
phone 4g Earth businessman connect worldwide waiter hand holding an empty digital tablet with smart and 4G network connection concept
Following the DoT’s technical committee proposal for the usage of Indian core in BSNL’s next-generation network, rival groups led by Indian corporations such as Tech Mahindra and L&T pulled out of the race.
Last October, Ashwini Vaishnav, the minister of communications, and K. Rajaraman, the secretary of the Department of Transportation, conducted the first test VoLTE (voice-over long-term evolution) call over an indigenously designed 4G network.
In the first phase of the program, BSNL plans to deploy 4G equipment at 50,000 sites in urban and semi-urban areas, out of a total of 90,000.
In September, BSNL requested Rs 37,005 crore from the government, which includes Rs 17,500 crore for capital expenditure (Capex) and Rs 19,605 crore for debt payment between the current fiscal year and FY24.
The operating expense (OPEX) incurred by the telco as a result of the 4G network rollout is expected to be close to Rs 800 crore every year.
According to current statistics from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the state-run telecom carrier’s market share has dropped to 9.60 percent.
Experts believe that Google’s $1 billion investment in Bharti Airtel and their cloud collaboration will expedite the Mountain View-based Internet giant’s digital goals in one of its major markets, India, and make it a stronger challenger to larger rivals Microsoft and AWS.
They went on to say that the partnership will help Google focus on the small and medium business (SMB) segment, which Airtel dominates.
“Google is fighting this battle on the cloud. It is an extremely good business, but they are running behind both Microsoft and Amazon,” said Haresh Chawla, partner at private equity firm True North Co. “This is a way to get the Airtel commercial users onto the Google Cloud Platform. So it works for Google that way that they will try and pull many customers from the Airtel ecosystem into the Google Cloud.”
In India, Airtel already serves over 2000 large firms and about one million small businesses. Analysts believe that having access to this user base as these enterprises digitize is a win-win situation for cloud providers.
They already have a cloud-services partnership. In addition to an existing agreement for the G Suite family of apps, Airtel announced a broadband plan for small businesses and startups last year in collaboration with Google Cloud and Cisco. Analysts claim that even without its Google and AWS relationships, Airtel has long-standing client engagements and commands premium pricing from businesses as a cloud service provider. However, the SMB sector is ready for expansion.
According to Canalys research, Amazon Web Services has a 32 percent share of the worldwide cloud infrastructure market, followed by Microsoft Azure at 21% and Google Cloud at 7%.
According to Gartner, the cloud industry in India will develop at a compound annual growth rate of 31% over the next five years, reaching $16 billion by 2025. According to Naveen Mishra, senior director analyst at Gartner, “execution will be essential,” but if done well, “this will benefit Google Cloud is increasing its business outside the top six to ten cities in India.”
She went on to say that the Airtel deal will allow Google to combine its services with India’s top internet providers, including Jio and Airtel.
“With this investment, Google is trying to penetrate the SMB market by synergizing its cloud and core offerings along with Airtel’s offerings in connectivity and data center space,” said Akshara Bassi, research analyst at Counterpoint.
According to Naveen Mishra, a senior director at Gartner, Airtel has been investing in growing its multi-cloud portfolio over the last two years, first with AWS and subsequently with Oracle. “Both of these are largely around Airtel building infrastructure and a joint go-to-market strategy. …This deal (with Google) will be especially beneficial in reaching the mid-market and SMB customers through Airtel, which it would not be able to do on its own”.
They claim that such collaborations will enhance telecom income streams from developing digital business prospects such as cloud computing, CPaas (communication platform as a service), IoT (internet of things), cybersecurity solutions, and OTT (over-the-top) subscriptions.
Airtel and Google are entering into a long-term, multi-year agreement to accelerate the growth of India’s digital ecosystem. As part of this partnership, Google is looking to invest up to $1 billion, as part of its Google for India Digitization Fund, which includes equity investment as well as a corpus for potential commercial agreements, that are yet to be identified and agreed on mutually agreeable terms over the duration of the next five years.
The investment involves a $700 million equity investment in Bharati Airtel at a price per share of 734 INR to acquire a 1.28% ownership in the Sunila Mittal-led telecom operator. Google had invested 33,737 crore INR for 7.73% in Reliance Jio platforms, the parent company of Jio.
Nearly up to $300 million will go towards implementing commercial agreements, which will include investments in scaling Airtel’s offerings that cover a range of devices to consumers through innovative affordability programs as well as other offerings aimed at accelerating access and digital inclusion across India’s digital ecosystem.
Both the organizations have agreed to jointly explore and invest across a wide spectrum of areas to create digital solutions that are unique to India’s requirements.
As part of its first commercial, Airtel and Google will work jointly to build on Airtel’s extensive offerings that cover a range of Android-enabled devices to consumers through innovative affordability programs.
Jointly, the companies will continue to explore further opportunities to bring down the barriers of owning a smartphone across different price points, in collaboration with multiple device manufacturers.
Under the larger strategic goals of the partnership, both the companies will also potentially co-create India-specific network domain use cases for 5G and other standards, with cutting-edge implementations.
Airtel is already using Google’s 5G-ready Evolved Packet Core and Software Defined Network platforms and plans to explore scaling up the deployment of Google’s network virtualization solutions to deliver an amazing network experience to their user-base.
Both the companies will also focus on shaping and growing the cloud ecosystem in India to accelerate their digital transformation journeys. Airtel serves over a million small and medium businesses with its enterprise connectivity offering, and this partnership will assist in accelerating digital adoption.
Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Airtel said, “Airtel and Google share the vision to grow India’s digital dividend through innovative products. With our future ready network, digital platforms, last mile distribution and payments ecosystem, we look forward to working closely with Google to increase the depth and breadth of India’s digital ecosystem.”
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, the parent company of Google said, “Airtel is a leading pioneer shaping India’s digital future, and we are proud to partner on a shared vision for expanding connectivity and ensuring equitable access to the Internet for more Indians. our commercial and equity investment in Airtel is a continuation of our Google for India Digitization Fund’s efforts to increase access to smartphones, enhance connectivity to support new business models, and help companies on their digital transformation journey.”
The two giants in the Indian telecom sector looks to opportunitize the fall of VI and BSNL, and that trend continues says the latest TRAI Subscriber report as of November 2021. The report shows Reliance Jio is continuing its form to gain a lot of subscribers and in this case, a whopping 20 lakh new subscribers i.e. 2 million as of November 30th 2021.
The biggest rival to Jio is Bharti Airtel which is still standing strong against Jio, Airtel has added a handsome 13 lakh new subscribers or 1.3 million. While as we see the graphs show a chunk of people are switching from VI to Airtel and the remaining loyal BSNL customers are no longer opting to be limited to 3G.
Vodafone Idea & BSNL lost 18.9 lakh & 2.3 lakh subscribers respectively and that translates to a significant number of people who are likely to prefer the two giants because they fear these companies would shut down someday. The no-longer existent MTNL also lost 4,318 subscribers and that definitely confirms its exit is sooner.
Reliance Jio now has the highest active subscriber base amongst all telecom operators and is alone the biggest wireless subscriber provider with a 36.71% market share. This goes to show its dominance, also the service it is building is alone making users switch to Jio while its JioPhone is also a key factor in gaining even more subscribers.
However, we also have to highlight on Airtel’s connectivity speed and services are no doubt even better or comparable to Jio which is why they are able to handle Jio’s dominance, standing strong with a 30.43% market share. The main challenge or say the fight will happen this year with 5G as India finally plans to roll out the 5G spectrum.
Mr. Mukesh Ambani’s announcement of Jio’s launch in 2016 was a watershed moment in Indian history, forever altering our lives. However, while we, the consumers, were having a ball and revelling in the newfound luxury of the internet, the rest of the telecom firms were experiencing a nightmare. The value of their stocks plummeted.
Several major corporations have gone out of business, and the once-bustling telecom industry has devolved into a desolate wasteland with only a few survivors.
While all of these firms went bankrupt, Airtel was the only one that remained afloat throughout this harsh telecom war, and it is now not only surviving but outperforming Jio in several critical areas.
Airtel had more than 300 percent more wireless subscribers than Jio as of January 2021. In fact, Airtel has the highest active subscriber market share as of February 2021.
What is it about Airtel and Jio’s competition that makes it so special? What gives them such an advantage over their competitors? And, most importantly, what are the business lessons we can take away and apply to our own companies?
The solution to these concerns can be found in a product-service ecosystem, which is one of the most important strategies of the twenty-first century. Steve Jobs, the legend, is credited with inventing this business model.
Creating a product service ecosystem is when a firm tries to integrate its products so strategically into the consumer’s lifestyle that the customer either continues to buy items from the same brand or finds switching to another brand exceedingly difficult.
Understanding how Steve Jobs established an ecosystem for Apple users is the simplest approach to comprehend.
Apple’s ecosystem concept is basically made up of three types of components.
The first category consists of entry-level products.
Retainers and Upsell are the second and third options, respectively.
The iPhone is your entry-level product. You then begin to use Facetime and iMessage. That is when you invest in the product through talks and file sharing. Now that you can’t access your iMessage on Android, you’re clinging to Apple because of your addiction to iMessage and other services.
Upsell occurs once you have these retainers in your hands. If you bought an iPhone 10 last year, you’re more likely to buy an iPhone 13 this year. Why? Because your phone may have become obsolete, but you still want to protect your investment, which includes iMessages, other services, and, most crucially, the user interface habituation.
If you look around you, you’ll notice that Jio and Airtel aren’t just telecom firms; they’re also part of a larger digital ecosystem. They simply want to place their items in some of your most important life areas. This is the hidden business relationship worth a billion dollars.
When you purchase a Jio SIM, you will be offered Jio TV, and when you purchase a Jio broadband connection, you will be provided with a set-up box as an added bonus at a very low cost. If you purchase a Mi TV these days, you will also receive a Jio-Fi connection. So, rather than purchasing things, you are purchasing the Jio ecosystem as a whole.
Jio is constructing its initial layer of the ecosystem in this way, by making its entry-level items readily available. The most important reason for Airtel’s survival is that they recognised the value of the ecosystem early on and began to construct it faster than any other participant in the market.
How did Airtel manage to develop this environment in such a short period of time? Airtel had previously done a fantastic job with its existing service, it turned out. Back in 2016, their DTH service was one of the most competitive along with TATA sky, with a market share ranging from 20% to 25%. In comparison to its competition, Airtel already provides considerably superior service to its clients.
Last but not least, the groundwork for Airtel broadband was laid in 2017, when the company had 21 lakh active connections. When you compare this to the rest of the competition, you’ll notice that they were much behind Airtel in a number of areas. Vodafone and Idea were completely absent from the DTH market. Videocon had a strong DTH footprint but struggled with mobile users.
Third, while TATA Sky was the market leader, TATA Docomo was a flop. To be honest, BSNL wasn’t even playing. However, Airtel made some pretty aggressive initiatives to hit a home run in this area. They moved on to explore for smaller companies, acquiring Videocon Telecommunications in 2016, Telenor in 2017, and Tata Teleservices in 2018. They gained two significant advantages as a result:
It added extra spectrum and made it impossible for Jio to buy these businesses. They chose to focus on only the most valuable consumers and set a minimum recharge limit. As a result, in the fourth quarter of 2018, Airtel lost 4.8 crore consumers. However, they were able to save a significant amount of money and increase profitability as a result of this.
They, like Jio, began to integrate their services in order to create an ecosystem. They began by providing a setup box, broadband connection, and exclusive access to services like as wink music.
The game began to shift at this point. Apart from client retention, an ecosystem strategy gives a business three tremendous superpowers when it starts integrating numerous goods in its ecosystem.
The loss leader strategy is Airtel’s second ecosystem superpower. Finally, Airtel was able to successfully place its products in houses that already had a Jio SIM by effectively executing these techniques.
That Airtel has begun to penetrate Jio’s ecosystem is significant. Total broadband customers increased by 95 lakh in September 2020. Jio ended up with roughly 17 lakh users, while Airtel had 70 lakh. DTH service and even an Airtel sim card have been offered to several of these persons.
Not surprisingly, Airtel is rapidly catching up with Jio in the wireless segment, routinely outperforming Jio by a wide margin. In reality, Airtel added over 15.9 lakh new cellular subscribers in January 2021, whereas Jio only added 19.5 lakh. That’s a 300 percent change in growth rate.
This is how Airtel fits into the Jio ecosystem as a Trojan horse. Now that all eyes are on Jio, there’s a potential that Airtel, with its aggressive integration plan, may pull off something spectacular.
Concluding Words:
Isn’t it impressing that Airtel has not only successfully survived under Jio’s dominance but also how efficiently maintained its position and is giving neck-to-neck competition to Jio? We’re sure you must be having something to say on this, so do let us know your views below.
