The new equipment contracts are aimed at accelerating the transition of Airtel’s remaining feature phone users to smartphones and boosting user revenues, the people said.
This adds to the talks that the telecom company led by billionaire Sunil Mittal is holding with global suppliers to buy more 5G Network While the current priority is to deepen 4G coverage across India, the people said, “Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung will cover about 50%, 45% and 5% of the nearly 300,000 additional 4G base stations that Airtel needs, respectively, over a three-year period,” one of the people said.
The telecom firm with a market capitalisation of Rs 9.46 trillion would pay the three suppliers largely through issuance of letters of credit.
Letters of credit would normally be granted by banks, guaranteeing that future payments from the telecommunications company to suppliers would be disbursed on time and for the agreed amount.
Airtel’s share price has risen more than 80% in the past one year against a 23% rise in the benchmark Sensex index. Industry executives familiar with Airtel’s talks with equipment makers said Sweden’s Ericsson could supply 4G base stations in 11 circles — Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, UP-West, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Assam, Northeast, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Finland’s Nokia, in turn, could meet Airtel’s 4G base station needs in 9 circles — Mumbai, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, UP-East, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Kerala, and South Korea’s Samsung in the remaining two markets of Kolkata and Punjab.
Airtel, Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung did not respond to ET’s queries.
Airtel’s decision to undertake another round of 4G network expansion is tied to its aim to deepen mobile broadband coverage in five key circles – Gujarat, Maharashtra, MP, Kerala and West Bengal – where it has a limited 4G presence.
In parallel, the telco also plans to bolster 4G coverage in uncensus-covered cities and towns across India as it looks to quickly convert its remaining 95 million users from 2G to 4G.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.