Bharti Airtel has made representation to union govt to bring DTH under DoT: Gopal Vittal
Vittal, MD & CEO — India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel, explained during the Q1 earnings call that the company will push for it to bring about a more cohesive and consistent policy regime
Telecom giant Bharti Airtel has made a representation to the union government to bring the direct-to-home (DTH) business under the Department of Telecom (DoT), which is a department under the Ministry of Communications, Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO — India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel, told analysts during the Q1 earnings conference call.
Currently, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is the licencing authority for the DTH business, while the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) regulates the sector on the carriage side.
In December 2020, the union government had approved the new DTH licence guidelines, which have increased the DTH licence period to 20 years in place of the present 10 years. Further, the period of licence may be renewed by 10 years at a time. The licence fee has been revised from 10% of GR to 8% of AGR. AGR will be calculated by deduction of GST from GR. The licence fee will be collected on a quarterly basis.
“During the quarter, we made a representation to the Government to bring DTH under the DoT given the varying regulatory policies arising out of the different delivery modes of the very same services through different technologies — Cable, Satellite or Fiber. We will continue to pursue this to bring about a more cohesive and consistent policy regime,” Vittal said.
He also said that the company has further strengthened its second position in the DTH industry with a presence in 18 million high-value homes with an Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of Rs 151. “I believe there are two opportunities to grow this business. The first is conversion from Cable and the second is the move to connected boxes, which also allow us to operate as a platform of choice for driving the penetration of OTT services in partnership with OTT content providers.”
On the wire broadband business, Vittal said that the company expanded its presence by rolling out an additional 1 million home passes during the quarter. “Our innovative partnership model with the local cable operator allowed us to extend our services to an additional 98 towns, taking our LCO presence now to over 300+ towns.”
Bharti Airtel added 285,000 customers during the quarter to take the total base to 3.35 million. “With the continued growth in demand for high-quality broadband triggered by Work from home, online education and entertainment, the business added 285K customers and reached a milestone of 3.35 Mn broadband customers. This was despite challenges faced in the quarter due to lockdowns.”
Given the large opportunity in the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) segment, the company plans to step up its investments to expand the network. “With the lifting of the lockdown and the ebbing of the second COVID-19 wave, we are seeing even stronger momentum in this business. We are also seeing the temporary disconnections made by small businesses/SOHOs being activated again. Going forward, I believe Fiber to the Home is a very large opportunity, and we will continue to step up investments to take our network to over 2000 towns across India and cover over 35 million home passes in the next 3 years.”
Vittal also revealed that Airtel has one of the biggest digital ecosystems in India with over 185 Million MAUs across its three platforms — Airtel Thanks, Wynk Music and Airtel Xstream.
Airtel is leveraging its digital assets to create altogether new revenue streams like Airtel IQ, Airtel Secure, Airtel Ads and subscription services across music and video verticals. “Airtel IQ, our cloud communications suite, which now has over 120 customers spanning the biggest internet companies, banks and more. There is Airtel Secure both in the B2B and B2C space that offers protection from cyberattacks and threats. This is a business that is now gaining traction. There is Airtel Ads which ride on our vast Digital assets. Today, we already have around 100 brands advertising on our platform. Finally, we have our subscription services across Music and Video which are beginning to gain traction,” he elaborated.
The Airtel India chief also pointed out that these businesses operate in a market that is about Rs 50,000 crore and growing. “Even more important, the economics of playing in these markets are very attractive since they come at almost no cost and capex. Over the last couple of quarters, we have made solid progress in driving these new streams of revenues and are now in touching distance of Rs 1000 crore annualised. At the right point, we will provide more colour on this segment through our disclosures.”
He also said that the company has further strengthened its second position in the DTH industry with a presence in 18 million high-value homes with an Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of Rs 151. “I believe there are two opportunities to grow this business. The first is conversion from Cable and the second is the move to connected boxes, which also allow us to operate as a platform of choice for driving the penetration of OTT services in partnership with OTT content providers.”
On the wire broadband business, Vittal said that the company expanded its presence by rolling out an additional 1 million home passes during the quarter. “Our innovative partnership model with the local cable operator allowed us to extend our services to an additional 98 towns, taking our LCO presence now to over 300+ towns.”
Bharti Airtel added 285,000 customers during the quarter to take the total base to 3.35 million. “With the continued growth in demand for high-quality broadband triggered by Work from home, online education and entertainment, the business added 285K customers and reached a milestone of 3.35 Mn broadband customers. This was despite challenges faced in the quarter due to lockdowns.”
Given the large opportunity in the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) segment, the company plans to step up its investments to expand the network. “With the lifting of the lockdown and the ebbing of the second COVID-19 wave, we are seeing even stronger momentum in this business. We are also seeing the temporary disconnections made by small businesses/SOHOs being activated again. Going forward, I believe Fiber to the Home is a very large opportunity, and we will continue to step up investments to take our network to over 2000 towns across India and cover over 35 million home passes in the next 3 years.”
Vittal also revealed that Airtel has one of the biggest digital ecosystems in India with over 185 Million MAUs across its three platforms — Airtel Thanks, Wynk Music and Airtel Xstream.
Airtel is leveraging its digital assets to create altogether new revenue streams like Airtel IQ, Airtel Secure, Airtel Ads and subscription services across music and video verticals. “Airtel IQ, our cloud communications suite, which now has over 120 customers spanning the biggest internet companies, banks and more. There is Airtel Secure both in the B2B and B2C space that offers protection from cyberattacks and threats. This is a business that is now gaining traction. There is Airtel Ads which ride on our vast Digital assets. Today, we already have around 100 brands advertising on our platform. Finally, we have our subscription services across Music and Video which are beginning to gain traction,” he elaborated.
The Airtel India chief also pointed out that these businesses operate in a market that is about Rs 50,000 crore and growing. “Even more important, the economics of playing in these markets are very attractive since they come at almost no cost and capex. Over the last couple of quarters, we have made solid progress in driving these new streams of revenues and are now in touching distance of Rs 1000 crore annualised. At the right point, we will provide more colour on this segment through our disclosures.”
