According to the executive vice-chairman, Bharti Airtel, the company is looking to expand its presence in India’s data centre market, with plans to scale capacity to around 1 GW over the next three to four years from the current 120-130 MW.
Meanwhile, Airtel has also written to the government seeking parity with Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), which received a 10-year relief on statutory dues linked to adjusted gross revenue (AGR). Airtel’s AGR liabilities stand at Rs 481.03 billion. During the earnings call, he said Airtel has formally written to the Department of Telecommunications and is awaiting a response.
He also welcomed the government’s recent move to offer a 20-year tax holiday for global cloud companies setting up data centres in India.
Beyond this, he mentioned that the company has plans to reallocate capital toward cloud and digital services such as cybersecurity, financial services, internet of things and communications platform-as-a-service offerings, while moderating 5G capital expenditure. Furthermore, he said that the company does not expect near-term tariff hikes and will instead focus on driving revenue growth through feature phone-to-smartphone upgrades, prepaid-to-postpaid migrations, data monetisation and international roaming services.
Further, on international operations, the managing director and chief executive office, Airtel, said, Africa continues to be a strong growth market. Airtel Africa is a “phenomenal investment”. He further mentioned that the asset value has nearly doubled over the past five to six quarters.
