Airtel may hike capex to Rs 280 bn for 5G rollout

30 Dec 2022 CW Team

Bharti Airtel plans to invest Rs 270-280 billion in its telecom network with the focus on 5G rollout.

While the company is plans to increase capital expenditure by 10-15%, it has no plans to charge a premium rate for 5G services, as such differential tariff schemes have not worked in several countries that tried it.

“Airtel capex will be in line with that spent in the last three years. It may go up or down because of the faster rollout of 5G - around Rs 27,000-28,000 crore. We may see an upsurge in one year and gradually moderate around the same level,” an official who did not wish to be named said.

The company earlier had an annual average capex in the range of Rs 240-250 billion. The official said that capex is being largely spent on radios (mobile antennas), fibre, broadband, enterprise technology, data centres, etc.

According to data from the Telecom Ministry, Bharti Airtel has rolled out 3,293 base stations for 5G till November 26.

The official said that the company hopes mobile service rates will go up, but the range of increase will depend on market dynamics.

He said that in the next six weeks the company will have a full idea of the pilot and take calls on its rollout in other telecom circles.

He said that the company sees a lot of business coming from consumers shifting from 2G to 4G, pre-paid to postpaid, and postpaid customers buying all of Airtel's services like broadband, direct-to-home etc.

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