Devender Singh Rawat, chief executive officer, Bharti Infratel Limited, talks about the trends in the telecom infrastructure industry and the company?s key achievements?
What have been the company?s major achievements in the past one year?
In 2012, the company achieved the most important milestone of getting listed on the country?s two bourses, the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange. Following a successful listing, it is well positioned to create more value for its customers and shareholders. The highlight of a tower company?s business model is its long-term contracts, resulting in an annuity model vis-?-vis revenues. Bharti Infratel reported strong financial performance in 2012-13 despite limited roll-outs by operators. Its consolidated revenue for 2012-13 was over Rs 100 billion, recording 8.7 per cent growth as compared to 2011-12. The profit after tax stood at over Rs 10 billion, marking an increase of over 33 per cent over the previous financial year.
What has been the impact of 3G and 4G service launch on the company?s operations? What proportion of your current sites is 3G and 4G ready?
The Indian telecom market is witnessing an increase in the demand for data services. The key catalysts for this are the country?s expanding young urban population; the availability of affordable handsets; and the proliferation of relevant content. Service providers have spent over Rs 10 billion on 3G and 4G spectrum and are planning additional investments in expanding their 3G and 4G networks. This requires operators to install additional active telecom transmission equipment at the towers. Also, while operators initially seek to add active telecom infrastructure at their existing sites to meet the growing demand for data services, the need for higher tower density will lead to a demand for new towers from operators.
The industry is realigning its requirements from a voice-only market to a voice and data market. Bharti Infratel?s leading customers have established 3G networks to meet the needs of the emerging data-centric environment and are showing healthy data growth of over 90 per cent per annum.
What are the new technologies (small cell, Wi-Fi, etc.) being adopted by the industry and by Bharti Infratel?
With the proliferation of data services, expansion of 3G/4G networks, and infrastructure development across Category B and C cities, the existing macro network is required to be complemented with small cell architecture through in-building solutions, Wi-Fi offload and distributed antenna systems.
The company?s technical team continues to evaluate these solutions and Bharti Infratel is conducting trials using a few of these technologies.
