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“We should be announcing the launch of our BWA services in the next few months,” said deputy group CEO and managing director of Bharti Enterprises, Akhil Gupta. He however declined to disclose a timeline for the launch.
BWA enables high-speed internet access, internet telephony and television services and can be used for both voice and high-speed data services.
Bharti Airtel won BWA spectrum in four circles in the auctions conducted last year — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kolkata and Punjab — for Rs 3,314.36 crore. This was in addition to the Rs 12,296 crore it paid to acquire 3G spectrum across 13 circles in the auctions held last year. The company launched its 3G services earlier this year.
Gupta also said that the company was considering an IPO for its tower arm, Bharti Infratel, that owns 32,424 towers. “At some point there definitely will be an IPO but not at this time – neither for Bharti Infratel nor for Indus Towers,” he said. Indus Towers is jointly owned by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular. Its proportionate share of towers in Indus Towers is 35,254.
He added that the company’s Africa operations will continue to see high manpower costs due to higher cost of living there. However, he denied that the company was looking at downsizing its Africa operations. “We will try to reduce costs through increase in volumes,” said Gupta.
He further said that while the company had brought down the tariffs, it was not engaging in a price war in the African continent. “We have rationalised the tariffs to some extent,” he said.
Bharti Airtel acquired Zain’s Africa operations for an enterprise value of $10.7 billion last year. Its cost per employee in Africa, at $4,625 (Rs 206,760) per month is more than double its cost per employee in India which stands at Rs 100,103 per month.
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