Pramod Goel has 20 years of experience in the Indian telecom sector. He has worked across wireless, broadband as well as telecom infrastructure domains and has been associated with companies like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Ascend Telecom and American Towers Corporation in various capacities. In his current role as vice-president, in-building connectivity solutions at iBus Networks, he is responsible for overseeing builder acquisition, telco relationship management, project deployment and mitigation, billing and revenue assurance, as well as providing strategic inputs to executive management on the telecom sector trends.
iBus is an indoor connectivity technology company focused on offering 2G/3G/4G and digital connectivity indoor solutions for large IT parks, malls, hotels and hospitals by creating a common shareable telecom infrastructure.
Considering the selective deployment of in-building solutions (IBS) by operators currently, Goel foresees an immense opportunity in this space. “IBS deployment is just 5 per cent with solutions deployed at not more than 25,000 buildings as against the 500,000 tower sites in the country. However, the indoor traffic generation stands at 75 per cent. The increasing data traffic on account of 4G and the advent of 5G would create opportunities for passive and active sharing, and planned growth of 5,000-10,000 shared IBS sites per year,” he says.
Goel considers his role at iBus as the most exciting one, as it offers a challenging environment for competing with some of the large infrastructure providers (IP-1), and educating builders and corporates about the concept of IBS amidst a changing regulatory framework. “Active sharing of IBS and regulatory concerns need to be addressed by DoT for multi-operator connectivity to IBS sites”, he adds. As for his management style, Goel believes in following a hands-on, data-driven and assertive approach. He considers his sustained and relentless focus and passion in executing business plans as his biggest strength.
Goel is a graduate in electronics and instrumentation, and has a diploma in marketing. In his spare time, he enjoys meeting with industry peers and experts, and reading articles on new telecom trends and technologies. His family comprises his wife, who is a school teacher, and their two children. “My daughter has a BBA degree in travel and tourism, and has been working for the past year, while my son is doing an MBA in sports management.”
