The country’s largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel plans to invest Rs 60,000 crore over the next three years to expand its network.
The investment includes Airtel’s capital expenditure guidance of around Rs 16,000 crore in the current financial year. At the end of the September quarter, Airtel’s net debt stood at Rs 70,777 crore.
The development comes ahead of the impending launch of 4G services by Reliance Jio, owned by Mukesh Ambani, in the next year, which is expected to increase competition in the telecom sector.
Investors and analysts have turned cautious about incumbent telecom companies as Reliance Jio is expected to target their existing base. This makes it imperative for Airtel to defend its turf by ensuring that its service is top quality.
Airtel's network transformation programme, titled Project Leap, intends to offer better speeds for data and fewer call drops on the voice side. Airtel plans to deploy about 70,000 base stations in the current financial year and add another 160,000 base stations over the next three years across India. This will enable Airtel’s customers to avail broadband speeds of 50 Mbps up from the current 16 Mbps by March 2016.
http://wap.business-standard.com/article/companies/bharti-airtel-to-shell-out-rs-60-000-cr-for-network-upgrade-115113000287_1.html
The investment includes Airtel’s capital expenditure guidance of around Rs 16,000 crore in the current financial year. At the end of the September quarter, Airtel’s net debt stood at Rs 70,777 crore.
The development comes ahead of the impending launch of 4G services by Reliance Jio, owned by Mukesh Ambani, in the next year, which is expected to increase competition in the telecom sector.
Investors and analysts have turned cautious about incumbent telecom companies as Reliance Jio is expected to target their existing base. This makes it imperative for Airtel to defend its turf by ensuring that its service is top quality.
Airtel's network transformation programme, titled Project Leap, intends to offer better speeds for data and fewer call drops on the voice side. Airtel plans to deploy about 70,000 base stations in the current financial year and add another 160,000 base stations over the next three years across India. This will enable Airtel’s customers to avail broadband speeds of 50 Mbps up from the current 16 Mbps by March 2016.
http://wap.business-standard.com/article/companies/bharti-airtel-to-shell-out-rs-60-000-cr-for-network-upgrade-115113000287_1.html
