Airtel aims to roll out 5G pan-India by March 2024: MD Gopal Vittal

has prepared detailed fifth-generation or 5G network rollout plans for 5,000 towns pan India, with an aim to achieve a pan-India rollout by March 2024, the telco’s MD Gopal Vittal said.

“We intend to launch 5G starting in August and extend to a pan-India rollout very soon. By March 2024 we believe we will be able to cover every town and key rural areas as well with 5G. In fact detailed network rollout plans for 5000 towns in India are completely in place,” Vittal said in an earnings call, a day after reported its Q1FY23 results.

“This will be one of the biggest rollouts in our history. While our 3-year capex will remain around the same levels this rapid rollout could see some advancement of CAPEX on an in year basis,” the executive said.

Rival Jio, in contrast, has planned 5G coverage planning in the top 1,000 cities across the country, its parents Limited () in its annual report released Saturday. , however, is yet to announce its 5G coverage plans.




“With the combination of fiber to the tower, synergies from fiber to the home and the availability of E-band micro wave spectrum, every site we roll out will be backhaul ready to provide 5G experience in line with what is needed to deliver a world class experience,” Vittal said.

Airtel consolidated net profit for the fiscal first quarter jumped 467% on-year, on the back of 4G user additions and higher data consumption, besides the residual effect of the price hikes, boosting average revenue per user (ARPU).

India’s second largest telco, however, missed estimates while posting a net profit of Rs 1,606.9 crore, which slumped almost 20% from the fourth quarter of FY22, when it reported a one-time gain of Rs 984.7 crore. Sequential profit also fell as subscriber additions slowed on-quarter and on the back of higher costs, including operational and finance expenses.

This was Airtel’s seventh successive quarter in the black after six straight losses earlier. Analysts were expecting net profit of around Rs 1,900 crore.

Sunil Mittal-led Airtel’s ARPU, a key performance metric for telcos, grew to Rs 183 from Rs 178 in the March quarter, and from Rs 146 a year ago, helped by the residual impact of last year’s tariff hikes. Reliance Jio and loss-making Vodafone Idea had clocked ARPUs of Rs 175.7 and Rs 128, respectively in the just ended quarter.

Airtel’s consolidated revenue grew 22% on-year and 3% sequentially to Rs 32,804.6 crore, also helped by a strong performance in Africa and non-mobile businesses, such as enterprise and home broadband.

India’s mobile revenue grew 3.6% sequentially in the fiscal first quarter. Overall, India revenue increased 24% on-year to Rs 23,318.9 crore.

Airtel bought 19,867.8 MHz of spectrum for Rs 43,040 crore in the recent 5G auction. Jio was the most aggressive buyer, however, picking up 24,740 MHz of airwaves for Rs 88,078 crore, including 10 MHz of the pricey 700 MHz band pan-India.