Airtel Plans To Invest Around INR 28,000 Crore In 5G Network The company has no plans to charge a premium rate for 5G services even though it is planning to increase the capital expenditure by 10 to 15 per cent
By Teena Jose •
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Bharti Airtel has revealed that it has plans to invest INR 27,000 – INR 28,000 crore in telecom network, focusing on 5G rollout, according to a report citing a company official on Wednesday. The report also added that the company has no plans to charge a premium rate for 5G services even though it is planning to increase the capital expenditure by 10 to 15 per cent. The reason for the same is said that because it has not worked in many countries that tried to do so.
"Airtel capex will be in line with that spent in the last three years. It may go up and down because of the faster rollout of 5G, around INR 27,000-28,000 crore. We may see an upsurge in one year and gradually moderate around the same level," said an executive official with the surety of anonymity, in a statement.
As per a data shared by the telecom ministry, Bharti Airtel has rolled out 3,293 base stations for 5G till November 26.
While asserting the Airtel's plans to enhance the revenues with its user upgrade, a company executive, quoted in a news report, said that while Airtel has raised tariffs twice in 2021 and once in 2019, along with other industry players, it cannot continue to do the same in isolation. "Raising revenues through headline tariff hikes has its own limitations. One has to wait till the time the industry is prepared for it. Doing it in isolation impacts the company adversely," the executive said, as per the report.
The executive further said in the report that, an alternate way of raising revenues is by trying to shift subscribers from 2G to 4G, prepaid to postpaid, and making postpaid customers buy all of Airtel's services such as broadband, direct-to-home, etc.
Recently, Airtel has launched it 5G services in Jammu and Srinagar. As per the company's official statement, users with 5G enabled devices can upgrade to 5G at no cost and existing 4G Airtel users do not need to change their sim card either.
