“You know that fibre is always a superior technology when compared to fixed wireless access because it gives you concurrent uplink and downlink at the same levels. It has infinite capacities. One of our obsessions has been to really roll out fibre at a much more rapid pace. That said, the fact is that there places where we’ve not been able to reach, which will take time. And this is where fixed wireless access comes in. Today, about 40 to 45 percent of our overall net ads are coming in from fixed wireless access. And this will continue… We believe that the overall homes business must continue to see stronger growth,” said Vittal.
Speaking further on the fiber and FWA mix, Vittal stated that the company ideally wants more additions to come through fiber, with FWA playing a complementary role. “We would ideally like it to be more and more towards fibre. But fixed wireless access is a great complement, and over time, fibre will chase fixed wireless access,”
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Airtel’s Migration to 5G Standalone
On the topic of 5G Standalone (SA), Vittal reiterated Airtel’s focus on customer experience over simply deploying new technology. The priority, he said, remains on offloading 4G traffic onto the 5G network.
“On 5G SA, at the right point in time, we will go for it. As I’ve mentioned to you before on the mobile side, it’s very important that we offload the 4G traffic to 5G networks before we are in a position to refarm the spectrum and move to SA. The important thing to look at—whether it’s SA or NSA—is the experience that’s being delivered. Very recently, OpenSignal came up with a set of awards on 5G experience across the country, and we have won every single one of those awards. So, I think experience matters more to us than technology for the sake of technology. We’re going to be prudent about where we actually deploy SA, based on when we can offload the traffic,” Vittal explained in response to a question about the transition to 5G SA.
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Current 5G Network Empty
Vittal also highlighted that the current 5G network still has significant headroom, especially for uplink performance, which 5G SA could further enhance.
“As far as fixed wireless access is concerned, there’s an advantage in potentially using SA in order to improve the uplink performance, and that’s something that we’re looking at. You must recall that you must know that at this point, our networks on 5G are pretty empty, and so we have a lot of headroom for uplink. But at some point in time, probably the first port of call will be to move SA on fixed wireless access and then finally to get it to mobile,” he explained.
Bharti Hexacom
Bharti Hexacom, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, operates in the Rajasthan and North East telecom circles, providing consumer mobile services, fixed-line telephony, and broadband solutions. These regions include the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura. This is the same case with Hexacom.
FWA’s Relevance in Rajasthan and the North East
Responding to an analyst’s question about FWA’s relevance in Bharti Hexacom’s operational regions, given the challenging terrain and rural landscape, the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) confirmed FWA’s strategic value.
“The lion’s share of Homes acquisition in Q4 has been with FWA. We are seeing a strong… because it’s just the fact that there is no wired broadband in large parts, large geographies of these two circles. So indeed, when somebody with credibility with a high market share in mobility is coming up with FWA, there is a taker,” he said.
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Not Rushing into 5G SA
The CFO added that the company is targeting accelerated growth based on the current 5G capacity. “We are looking at a target of acceleration. It’s a simple function of the capacity of our 5G infrastructure being utilised. Today, there is adequate capacity for us to roll out more FWAs. Of course, as FWA capacity gets choked up, they can be liberated by laying fibres because then you can do a concentrated fibre laying and wire up those homes.
“Alternatively, you can go to [5G] SA. I think we are some distance away, and we are not in a race to meet a deadline as to when SA is implemented. Whichever part of the country, whether it is any other circle or indeed, these two circles, whichever circle, whichever comes closer, there we would do what Gopal mentioned…. implementing SA. But as of now, we are quite some distance away across the country, including the two circles,” the CFO concluded.
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