Telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, as part of expanding its network footprint in Mumbai is adding more 7,000 sites. By this new additional sites, the company will take its total number of sites in the city to 27,000. Amit Tripathi, CEO, Mumbai, Bharti Airtel Ltd, talks to Jescilia Karayamparambil about their plans in Mumbai and its surrounding regions.
What is Airtel’s plan in Mumbai?
Every year we create a plan to expand our network footprint as it is the backbone of the service we provide to the customer. This year we have a massive plan by increasing our footprint by 30 per cent in terms of technology at the same time, we will add 7,000 sites which means more than double of last year. This is basically (mostly 4G sites) and not towers. We would also add 400 km of optical fibre which is again double compared to last year. This will up our footprint by 30 per cent. Which ultimately means we we are adding one site every hour. Yet another expansion plan is in optical fibre connection which is not just for broadband, but for mobile connectivity too.
Earlier, the communication used to take place through wave. But during rains, the communication between two towers used to get distorted. Second, today the customers have 4G handsets and their data consumption is growing and these customers need faster speed. So, we are lying down fibre so that we can connect our sites. This fibre will help us in improving not just mobile experience, but also reach homes too. We are already present in the home segment.
What kind of growth have you seen in home segment?
In home segment (broadband connections), we have been growing especially after our fibre-to-home initiative was launched. This year we are expanding a lot across Mumbai and areas where data is consumed. In case of outer areas like Mira Road, Bhayandar, Titwala, Panvel, etc, where we connect with Maharashtra’s circle boundary, which is the special focus area.
Overall in optic fibre front, we are present in 2,300 km in entire Mumbai and this year it will probably reach to 2,700 km. This is basically in a city that is 603 sq km.
For the year 2018-19, will Airtel add more than 7,000 new mobile sites?
We might even go beyond 7,000 sites. Maybe after three-four months, we might come up with other figures.
What kind of work is Airtel doing in 5G front?
We are working on a pilot project in Bengaluru and other areas and based on the knowledge we gather from there, will launch 5G in due course of time. But what I can talk about is pre-5G Massive MIMO technology. This technology is neither 5G nor 4G. We use multiple antennas for massive input and massive output. We used it during IPL. This will be basically for areas where large number of people gather and start using lots of data.
We will be deploying massive MIMO Pre-5G technology across Mumbai in regions we have identified these requirements. The first venue to go live with Airtel’s massive MIMO deployment was Wankhede Stadium where the first match of the IPL was played. Massive MIMO expands network capacity by five-seven times on the same spectrum. This MIMO sites deployed at Wankhede actually carried more than five times more traffic on match days as compared to the average traffic carried by a 4G site in Mumbai on a normal day.
What are the challenges Airtel is expecting while implementing this expansion?
It is difficult to say about ROW (Right of Way for laying telecom cables) looking at a metropolitan area. We are getting good support from government agencies when it comes to ROW. Despite constraints during the monsoon lock-in period, we should be able to complete our deployment on time.
What kind of trends have you seen in Mumbai customers lately?
One clear trend is that there was low-level of internet literacy in the past, but that has changed now. There is a growing consumption of video content.
Today, internet is becoming increasingly interactive for mobile phone users with voice message, video messages and so on. Mumbai consumers like most other metropolitan cities, are tech-savvy and are evolved in their usage and understanding their technology. Also, their expectation on customer services and network is much higher.
In case of Airtel TV, we have seen a download of 50 million and that is massive. Among the consumers we have seen consumption in regional content.
What are you doing to ensure that data breach does not take place at store level especially franchisees?
We make sure that our franchisees operate in a standard manner. We train our customer relationship officer for 21 days, hire store managers and we capture it through our system. We keep tight control on customer communication and take feedback of the customers. We also have a mystery audit process in place just to make sure that none of our stores indulge in any wrong doings.
