Mumbai: In response to the Reliance Jio’s aggressive plans, Bharti Airtel has recently said that it is ‘open to’ partnering with local cable operators (LCOs) to get access to last mile connections to customers for its broadband service.
“We would be open to looking at partnerships to expand our access to the last mile,” said CEO Gopal Vittal.
The comment came in the context of Reliance Jio snapping up Hathway Datacom and Den Networks, two of the country’s largest cable feed providers.
It has been speculated that the company could make a ‘counter offer’ to local cable operators (LCOs) in an effort to expand its fiber broadband service.
Cable operators are likely to decide which operator to go with based on the financial support and other terms and conditions offered.
In case of Jio, for example, the company is likely to offer to lay the fiber optic cable at its own cost, instead of demanding that the local operator also share the cost.
Cable operators would also look at what kind of commission or revenue share they will get from each broadband subscriber on their upgraded network.
Bharti Airtel has been upgrading its copper-based network to a fiber-based play in the context of Reliance Jio getting ready to launch its Giga Fiber IPTV and broadband service in the coming months.
However, said Vittal, the company is rolling out its fiber network fast.
Within the first six months of the current financial year, he said, the ‘coverage’ of the fiber network has been increased by 1 million homes.
That, said Vittal, is equal to the expansion of the wired broadband service in the whole of last year. All expansion, he said, is now happening on fiber.
Vittal said his company is focusing on the low-hanging fruit of multi storey buildings like apartments for expanding the fiber network.
At present, Airtel offers 250 GB of data at speeds of up to 100 Mbps in Delhi, one of the markets where fiber penetration is very high.
Reliance Jio has a target of acquiring 50 mln customers for its wired services.
In comparison, Bharti Airtel has 2.21 mln customers, most of whom are on copper.
