The DTH business of Airtel has been hampered by disconnections in some commercial offices as well as amongst migrants as they returned to their homes. While it is trying hard to speed up the growth in connectivity, it has also eyed on broadband business. Since DTH has a handicap of its inability in providing broadband compared to MSOs in cable business, Airtel is planning to double its partnership with Local Cable Operators (LCOs) to tap the opportunities in smaller towns.
. “We also believe that there is a massive opportunity in smaller towns across India on the home broadband market. We are now live in 14 such cities through this partnership model,” Airtel Chief executive officer Gopal Vittal said. Bharti Airtel’s broadband business grew by 1.1% sequentially, driven by strong gross additions. However, a part of this growth was hampered by the temporary closure of small offices and shops who chose to turn off their service during the lock down.
“We will become the first operator in India to deploy s 5G ready software and would provide seamless evolution to 5G using the same architecture,” the chief executive officer said. Vittal said that while Airtel builds 5G solutions in the lab, the commercial roll out of 5G is still a few years away and needs readiness of the ecosystem – right use cases, device availability, applications and affordable spectrum availability.
