The telecom sector of India is one of the most ruthless places for private companies to be in. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, has been attached to the sector for decades now. Speaking at the Indian Mobile Congress (IMC) 2021, Mittal said that while it is important to fight really hard to gain new customers, the companies must also learn to collaborate together. Mittal said that there’s a lot of duplication in the industry, be it mobile towers or fiber, and thus the telcos can share tower infrastructure with each other going forward.
This would essentially reduce the costs for network rollout for the operators. At the same, the operators will be able to roll out new services faster.
India Has Very Affordable Tariffs, Thus Higher ARPU and Lower Costs Needed
Mittal said that sharing tower infrastructure would reduce the overall cost for network rollout for the operators. This is great for a country like India, where the tariffs are very affordable, and the average revenue per user (ARPU) is very low. In simple words, the operators have to make huge investments to onboard customers, but their earnings out of each customer are too low at the moment.
Thus by working together and collaborating, the telcos can reduce the network rollout cost, which is essential to them since their profit margins are not big.
Mittal said that he is very excited about the digital space and the telecom sector of India. The country has over a billion broadband users, and that is why people are already investing on their feet in the Indian telecom sector, added Mittal.
This is not the first time Mittal has asked the sector to come together. Earlier as well, that too multiple times, Mittal has suggested that telcos should learn to work together and not just focus on undercutting each other to gain a larger market share.
