Bharti Airtel won’t buy any pricey 700 MHz spectrum in the next 5G spectrum sale but will only target tiny chunks in markets where its airwave holdings are expiring next year, the company’s senior management said at an analyst event on Thursday.
The company added that it will refarm its mid-band airwaves (read: 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz) for 5G services once 25-30% of smart devices in circulation become 5G-enabled from around 10-12% now, according to BofA Securities, which participated at SingTel’s analyst day event that hosted Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal and CFO Soumen Ray.
Read More: HDFC Bank aims to reach 2.25 lakh villages by next March
Airtel is an associate company of SingTel, which owns less than 30% in the Sunil Mittal-led telco.
“Airtel’s management continued to highlight that the company has no intention to buy the 700MHz band (spectrum), and that it would only look to buy small spectrum in pockets where current holdings may be expiring,” BofA said, quoting the views of Airtel’s senior management.
Airtel’s spectrum in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands will expire in 2024 in eight markets – West Bengal, UP-East, UP-West, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Northeast and J&K.
The company’s latest views come even as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has just set the ball rolling for the next 5G spectrum sale by sending a reference to the sector regulator, seeking reserve prices for various bands estimated to be worth Rs 2.5 lakh-crore.
Read More: Chingari Fires Up To 50% Of Workforce In 2nd Job Cut Round In 2 Months
Airtel had given expensive 700 MHz spectrum a miss in India’s first 5G spectrum sale in July 2022, claiming that its existing spectrum holdings in the mid-band coupled with the new 5G airwaves bought in the 3.3 GHz/26 Ghz bands were adequate to deliver quality 5G services across India.
The top management of the Sunil Mittal-led telco, though, reiterated that tariffs needed to rise for average revenue per user (ARPU) — a key performance metric – to move up. The telco, though, is hopeful of reaching the aspirational ARPU target of Rs 300 going forward. This is since the telco is focused on monetisation around data plans, with consumers buying more data packs and moving to higher usage data plans.
Read More: Zepto Becomes The First Unicorn Of 2023, Raises $200 Million At 1.4 Billion Valuation
“This is not a question of if tariffs will go up, but it’s all about the timing, per the management,” BofA said, citing the views of the top Airtel executives.
Airtel’s ARPU was at Rs 200 in the June quarter, FY24, on the back of decent postpaid user additions as well as a pick-up in 2G to 4G conversions.
Airtel’s top executives also said that since the telco still has around 100 million 2G feature phone users, migrating each to a smartphone would lead to 60-70% uplift in blended ARPUs. “Bharti is currently doing 6-7 million 4G net adds each quarter, and migration from the prepaid to postpaid segment also provides a 60-70% ARPU uplift,” BofA said, quoting Airtel’s senior management.
