Bharti Airtel in Aggressive Expansion Mode in India

Bharti Airtel is in aggressive expansion mode in India. So far in 2024, whether it's Network expansion, 5G Technology trials, the expansion of Home Wi-Fi services, Airtel Business, Nxtra Data Centers, Digital TV content partnerships, the Apple partnership for content, or securing additional capacity on the Blue-Raman Submarine Cable System, Airtel is expanding in every aspect. The 2024 tariff revision announcement in June has further added to the growth prospects of Airtel India. Let's now take a look at the areas where Airtel India has demonstrated growth and expanded.

Also Read: Bharti Airtel Completes Additional Spectrum Deployment in Kolkata

Airtel Network Expansion

To begin with, let's take a look at the network expansion. In January, Airtel became the first to connect Lakshadweep to 5G. In February, Airtel became the first operator to deliver 5G connectivity to India's first underwater metro in Kolkata. To facilitate this service, Airtel has connected the 4.8 km stretch between Howrah Maidan, Howrah Station, Mahakaran, and Esplanade stations through fiber.

To enable seamless 5G connectivity for tourists ahead of the summer season, Airtel announced in April the network expansion into the picturesque regions of Leh and Ladakh. Key tourist destinations in Leh are equipped with Airtel 5G services, and Airtel's network footprint encompasses over 40 zones within Ladakh. High mountain passes, including Chang-la and Khardung-La, and key tourist locations like Pangong Lake and Turtuk-Nubra are now exclusively connected with Airtel 5G.

Also Read: Airtel Brings Connectivity to Remote Border Village of Phobrang

In a recent announcement in August, Airtel became the first provider to offer connectivity to Phobrang, India’s furthest border village on the Indo-China border, enabling connectivity for 2,000 households.

Airtel is also refarming its mid-band spectrum to meet the exponential growth of 5G traffic. Additionally, in July, Airtel announced it would become the first telco in India to offer both 5G NSA and 5G SA services. More information can be found in the story linked below.

Also Read: Airtel to Become First in India to Offer 5G SA and NSA

To date, Airtel's 5G network coverage reaches 140,000 villages, while its 4G network coverage extends to 800,000 villages across India. The company covers all 7,900 towns in India with both 5G and 4G technologies.

Airtel's network and infrastructure serve around 389.02 million wireless customers (as of June 2024, TRAI), over 30 million homes, and more than 3,500 enterprises.

Also Read: Airtel 5G Network Covers 1.4 Lakh Villages Across India

Airtel Home Wi-Fi Expansion

Airtel offers high-speed internet services through its Home Wi-Fi services, which include both fiber and 5G-based Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) offerings. The company has aggressively expanded its Home passes, adding millions of additional homes in various areas across India. Below are the expansions Airtel has announced so far in 2024.

Also Read: Airtel Expands Home Wi-Fi Service Across All Districts in Kerala, Assam, and North East

So far, Airtel has expanded to around 34 million new households across India with its Home Wi-Fi service in 2024.

Also Read: Airtel Wi-Fi Services: Entry-Level Plan Options and Benefits Detailed

Airtel Secured Additional Capacity

Airtel's additional capacity enhancement efforts include securing capacity on subsea system and acquiring 97 MHz spectrum in 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2100 MHz frequencies in the 2024 spectrum auction.

Also Read: Bharti Airtel Acquires 97 MHz Spectrum to Enhance 4G and 5G Services

The company successfully renewed spectrum expiring in 2024 and purchased additional spectrum to bolster its mid-band holdings across key circles. The secured spectrum is valid for 20 years. Airtel has also announced the successful deployment of newly acquired spectrum across respective circles, boosting 4G and 5G networks. These announcements are being made on a regular basis.

In the subsea cable segment, Airtel Business, the B2B arm of Airtel, signed an agreement with Italy's Sparkle on the Blue-Raman Submarine Cable Systems, which will connect India to Italy. This additional capacity will further diversify Airtel's global network across multiple international submarine cable systems to meet the growing demand for data services in India and neighbouring countries, Airtel said.

Also Read: Airtel Business Secures Additional Capacity with Sparkle on Blue-Raman Cable

Airtel Digital TV

In February, Airtel Digital TV announced a partnership with Culver Max Entertainment (CMEPL) to bring India's first Anime Entertainment Channel – Anime Booth – to its customers. Recently, Airtel Digital TV also partnered with Amazon Prime to offer live TV and Prime Lite benefits as part of its new Ultimate and Amazon Prime Lite plan. More information is available in the link below.

Also Read: Airtel Digital TV Launches New Entertainment Plan With Amazon Prime Benefits

Content Partnership

In August 2024, Airtel and Apple entered into a partnership to bring exclusive offers of Apple TV+ and Apple Music to customers in India. Under this partnership, Airtel customers will have access to all content on Apple TV+ and Apple Music. However, Airtel recently announced plans to shut down its Wynk Music services sometime this year.

Airtel Xstream Play, Airtel's OTT aggregator platform, has teamed up with Sun NXT, the video streaming service, to provide Airtel users access to its library of over 50,000 hours of content.

Airtel Business

Airtel Business announced in January that it will power over 20 million smart meters for Adani Energy Solutions Limited (AESL) across Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Uttarakhand with its smart IoT solutions powered by NB-IoT, 4G, and 2G. Additionally, Airtel Business and Cisco partnered to launch Airtel Software-Defined (SD) Branch — a secure, cloud-based, end-to-end managed network solution for enterprises.

Also Read: Airtel Business Launches Cloud-Based SD-Branch Solution for Enterprises

Airtel 5G Technology Trials

In February, Airtel announced that it had demonstrated millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G functionality on its network using the 26 GHz band, achieving peak speeds of 4.7 Gbps to meet high network capacity requirements, in collaboration with Ericsson.

In July, Airtel announced the successful completion of its first 5G non-standalone (NSA) Cloud RAN trial with Nokia. The trial utilised 3.5 GHz spectrum for 5G and 2100 MHz for 4G. Data calls were successfully performed with commercial user devices over Airtel's network, achieving a throughput of over 1.2 Gbps.

In September, Airtel announced the successful completion of trials combining TDD and FDD mid-band spectrum using the latest generation chipset with Nokia and MediaTek. The trial, which aggregated frequency bands of 3.5 GHz (n78) and 2.1 GHz (n1) to maximise uplink performance, achieved uplink speeds of 300 Mbps.

Also Read: Airtel Achieves 300 Mbps Uplink Speed in 5G Trial with TDD and FDD Spectrum Aggregation

Airtel Sustainability Efforts

Sustainability efforts include those of Airtel and Nxtra, the data center arm of the Bharti Group.

In February, Airtel announced it had switched to recycled PVC SIM cards in partnership with IDEMIA Secure Transactions. This industry-first move in India will reduce the generation of over 165 tonnes of virgin plastic and limit the production of over 690 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually, the company said.

Nxtra by Airtel, in February, signed a power-wheeling agreement with Ampln and Amplus Energy to procure an additional 140,208 MWh of renewable energy. Nxtra also joined the RE100 in June, becoming the first data center in India and the 14th Indian company to commit to sourcing 100 percent renewable electricity.

According to the second edition of the Sustainability Report for FY 2023-24, Nxtra Data reported an increase in the use of renewable energy in its operations, rising to 220,541 MWh, a 41 percent increase compared to the previous year. This equates to a reduction of 163,408 tCO2e in emissions over the year.

Also Read: Nxtra by Airtel Boosts Renewable Energy Use by 41 Percent

Bharti Airtel Market Capitalisation

The market capitalisation of Bharti Airtel crossed Rs 10 trillion for the first time ever after the company’s stock price hit a new high of Rs 1,673.35, gaining 1 percent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) during Thursday's intra-day trade. The combined market cap of Bharti Airtel (Rs 9.52 trillion) and Bharti Airtel's partly paid shares (Rs 49,526 crore) touched Rs 10.02 trillion in intra-day trade. With this, Airtel becomes the fourth company in India to cross this market cap milestone, according to media reports. According to a CLSA report, Earlier this year, in June 2024, Bharti Airtel entered India's USD 100 billion market cap club, driven by its mobile business.

Also Read: Bharti Airtel Joins USD 100 Billion Market Cap Club

Conclusion

The above developments and expansions clearly demonstrate that Airtel is aggressively growing across various service areas to meet the expanding high-speed data needs of customers in India.