Bharti Airtel forecasts revenue jump from digital services, set to emerge as a strong telecom player

Bharti Airtel is set to boost its revenue through digital services within the next three to four quarters. The telecom operator is also set to emerge as a strong player, building on its digital capabilities.

Airtel, as per various reports, has the highest average revenue per user of Rs 157 per month in the telecom industry. This is followed by Reliance Jio Infocomm and Vodafone Idea. The company’s senior executive told ET that five years from now, Airtel will be a strong telecom player getting large cash flows from serving customers. He said the company is building the digital products and services portfolio on its own products or through partnerships.

“On top of that an array of businesses and revenue streams created, some of which have been built by Airtel and some of them through our partnerships,” he said. “Whether Airtel is going to be able to get more customers? Will get greater stickness from customers which translates into more share of wallet, more lifetime value, more ARPU, and can the company eliminate waste and therefore cost.” On the consumer side, the executive said that they have built apps, Airtel music, video and are at a unique customer base of 165 million monthly active users. “In music, the company is currently exploring how to pivot to the subscription model. We don’t charge for downloads but bundle it currently and we are exploring how to charge,” he said.

Airtel is working on its presence, and is set to propel it to 1,000 cities by March 2021. “We have found an innovative model where we partner with the local cable operator to deliver the last mile connectivity. It is simple plug and play, and we share the revenue,” the executive said.

In August, the network provider announced a multi-year, Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services to deliver a comprehensive set of innovative cloud solutions to large enterprise and small and medium enterprise (SME) customers in India.