Bharti Airtel Likely to Spend Rs 454 bn on 5G over FY23-25E: ICICI Securities

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Bharti Airtel 5G Rollout

Airtel is initially rolling out Non-Standalone 5G (NSA 5G), wherein the telco will use the 3300 MHz (3.5 GHz) band for downlink and 1800 MHz for the uplink purpose. The 1800 MHz Mid band will help Airtel coverage by additional 100-300mts and will improve overall consumer experience than the otherwise only 3500 MHz based 5G Network. For backhaul, E-band can provide a microwave throughput of up to 10 Gbps which can help with quality 5G services with one-hope fiberisation, says ICICI Securities in its report.

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Bharti Airtel Investments on 4G

Bharti had 118k MBB BTS at the of FY16, and the MBB BTS number has expanded to 752k by the end of FY22, adding around 634k BTS. Bharti has rolled out 4G using multiple spectrum bands – 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, and 2300 MHz- implying the equipment required was much higher than 5G. During this period, Airtel has spent a capex of Rs 1,115 bn (average spend of Rs 186 bn pa) on mobile services.

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Bharti Airtel Investments on 5G

ICICI Securities expects Bharti Airtel to add 41k 5G radio in FY23 and 134k in FY24. This means Bharti will have loaded 5G on 50% of its towers with the 3500 MHz band and 10% with the 26 GHz band for capacity and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA).

According to the report, Bharti should start re-farming the 2100 MHz band from FY25 and, subsequently, a few 1800MHz in future to 5G. As a result, ICICI securities expect Bharti to have 85% of towers loaded with base 5G band by FY27, and it will have an average of 1.85x 5G radio/tower in the same period.

After all the spending involved, ICICI Securities assumes Bharti Airtel will likely spend Rs 454 bn on 5G over FY23-25E.