Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is expected to invest in 30,000+ cell sites, fiber, and FTTH rollout this year, said Sterlite Technologies in its Q4 FY 21 outlook. The FTTH deployments across India, Europe, and US continue to pick up pace as per STL with India budgeting Rs 14,200 crore for FTTH deployments.
Sterlite expects 6.5 lakh FTTH connections in FY22 with 6.7 kms of OFC and 1.2 lakh Wi-Fi points. The OFC demand is showing sustained long term growth notes STL with India seeing 19% increase in demand driven by FTTH deployments and BharatNet.
STL and Bharti Airtel last year had entered into Multi-Year LOI for fiber roll-out across 10 circles.
“2020 witnessed telcos committing billions of dollars towards strengthening digital networks. The need for high bandwidth and low latency added impetus to 5G and FTTx plans. This accelerated the shift towards Open Networking with multiple global trials for Open RAN. 2021 is set to usher in the decade of network creation; with 5G, FTTx and O-RAN at the centre stage. These mega trends are expected to boost the optical demand, early signs of which are already visible,” said STL in a release.
Sterlite in FY21 filed 191 patents while getting it’s first 5G patent. The company is on target to increase OFC plant capacity to 33 million fkm. STL grew it’s OFC volume by more than 31% in FY 21.
Trying to catch up jio in rural coverage.
Enjoying the competition between the two.
Rural connectivity improving & leading to development.
Thanx jio for leading in deep coverage & pushing Airtel to drag behind.
Airtel just does not want to be second to jio.