In its recent earnings call, Gopal Vittal, chief executive officer (CEO), Bharti Airtel, said that the telco is doubling down on its enterprise business by re-tooling its channels and product portfolio. Further, he added that Airtel cornered 31 per cent enterprise market share in December 2020, an 8 per cent share gain in two years.
As per Vittal, Airtel’s enterprise business continued to gain market share not just annually but quarter on quarter. Airtel is in sourcing its entire small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sales force, which was earlier outsourced, which will lead to upgradation of its SME channel capabilities helping it gain share. The telco, he said, is also building omni-channel digital capabilities.
Meanwhile, dismissing market speculation, Vittal said that the Bharti family and SingTel have no intentions to sell their stakes in Airtel. He also expects some softness to return to the telco’s India mobile services business in coming months due to reduced economic activity amid a devastating Covid-19 second wave.
Talking about 5G rollout, Airtel CEO said that the pandemic would delay the 5G spectrum auction to either end-of FY22 or FY23 instead of the earlier envisaged December 2021 timeline. Vittal expects Airtel’s annual capex spends in FY22 to be similar to the Rs 192 billion scaled in FY21, although the composition of the capex outflows is likely to change as huge chunk are likely to go towards the transport systems to boost the 5G-readiness of Airtel’s countrywide network.
Further, Vittal added that Airtel is experiencing financial pressures in the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, but expects the recovery to start soon.
