Airtel Will Reduce Its Spectrum Auction Budget For Two Years

Bharti Airtel's Managing Director Gopal Vittal has stated that the company will be spending a lot less on the future spectrum auctions and subsequent sales over the next few years since it does not require additional airwaves. Instead, it will renew spectrum in a few circles. The decision was announced during the firm's earnings call on 1 November.

The carrier, which is supported by Sunil Mittal, claimed that once the auctions are announced, a plan will be in place, according to report by Mint.

The government plans to hold the next sale of spectrum, by March 2024.

“I would not imagine that the company needs further spectrum for some time to come. The only place where some small chunks of spectrum may be needed is renewable spectrum in three or four circles, but it is a function of the traffic pattern. How much do we need? Do we need it at all? Those discussions are still underway," Gopal Vittal said.

According to Vittal, capital spending on 4G and 5G, which expanded dramatically in FY24, and will start to decline in FY25 since most of the deployment will be finished by March 2024.

According to Vittal, capital expenditures on transportation, home broadband, and data centres will stay high.

Because of feedback it received during the test launch of its Fixed wireless Access (FWA) services, Airtel decided to position its fixed wireless equipment outside of buildings rather than inside. The reason for this is that poor service quality occurs when 5G is unavailable in a particular location.

FWA services will have the same price as broadband that is provided over fiber optic cables. This is because FWA will be a complimentary service to fiber optic cables. Fiber optic cables provide guaranteed speeds and will be deployed in areas where it is not available.

“FWA will be a complement to fibre for two reasons. One, the pricing is the same, and the second, of course, the addressable market will not suddenly reach 200 million homes because that many homes will not be able to afford to spend Rs 1,000 a month on telecom expenses," said Vittal.