Bharti Airtel is planning to sign a pan-India intra-circle roaming
pact with BSNL to strengthen its 2G services. So, why two large
operators are planning intra-circle roaming?
First, the intra-circle roaming pact helps Airtel to improve its coverage in semi-urban, rural and remote areas where BSNL is pretty strong due to its sheer presence in smaller cities and villages. This complements very well with Bharti Airtel’s strong coverage in urban India through 163,361 network sites present in 5,121 census and 462,779 non-census towns and villages, covering 86.8 percent of India’s population. So it is a win-win for both the operators.
Second, Bharti Airtel is planning to leverage on BSNL’s phase 7 network expansion where BSNL has invested Rs 4,000 crore in mobile network. Phase 7 network expansion is expected to be completed by June, 2015 and this gives enough voice capacity to BSNL which Airtel is planning to utilize in the long run for voice services.
Network Strength of BSNL and Airtel
BSNL
In phase 7, BSNL has invested Rs 4,000 crore in network which is expected to complete by June 2015
BSNL plans to have a installed base of 110,000 network sites after June, 2015
Presently, BSNL’s network covers 72 percent of country’s population
Airtel
Airtel has 163,361 network sites presence in 5,121 census and 462,779 non-census towns and villages covering 87 percent of India’s population
National long distance optical fiber infrastructure provides a pan-India reach of 193,625 Rkms
Source: TeleAnalysis
Third, coming together of Bharti Airtel and BSNL for pan-India intra-circle roaming also helps in bringing down operational cost for Airtel thereby helping the company to focus more on 4G services. This will also help in improving Airtel’s quality of service (QoS) for voice services also providing improved QoS for Airtel customers.
Fourth, Bharti Airtel is getting ready for the competition. Reliance Jio’s pan-India 4G launch planned in 2015 will create some turbulence in India’s data market so Airtel is conserving its capex for 3G and 4G so that it can give a good fight to Reliance Jio on data services.
The telecom industry is eagerly awaiting the signing of intra-circle roaming agreement with Airtel and BSNL as it will help Airtel to lower its operational cost and on the other hand it will help BSNL to increase its revenue.
First, the intra-circle roaming pact helps Airtel to improve its coverage in semi-urban, rural and remote areas where BSNL is pretty strong due to its sheer presence in smaller cities and villages. This complements very well with Bharti Airtel’s strong coverage in urban India through 163,361 network sites present in 5,121 census and 462,779 non-census towns and villages, covering 86.8 percent of India’s population. So it is a win-win for both the operators.
Second, Bharti Airtel is planning to leverage on BSNL’s phase 7 network expansion where BSNL has invested Rs 4,000 crore in mobile network. Phase 7 network expansion is expected to be completed by June, 2015 and this gives enough voice capacity to BSNL which Airtel is planning to utilize in the long run for voice services.
Network Strength of BSNL and Airtel
BSNL
In phase 7, BSNL has invested Rs 4,000 crore in network which is expected to complete by June 2015
BSNL plans to have a installed base of 110,000 network sites after June, 2015
Presently, BSNL’s network covers 72 percent of country’s population
Airtel
Airtel has 163,361 network sites presence in 5,121 census and 462,779 non-census towns and villages covering 87 percent of India’s population
National long distance optical fiber infrastructure provides a pan-India reach of 193,625 Rkms
Source: TeleAnalysis
Third, coming together of Bharti Airtel and BSNL for pan-India intra-circle roaming also helps in bringing down operational cost for Airtel thereby helping the company to focus more on 4G services. This will also help in improving Airtel’s quality of service (QoS) for voice services also providing improved QoS for Airtel customers.
Fourth, Bharti Airtel is getting ready for the competition. Reliance Jio’s pan-India 4G launch planned in 2015 will create some turbulence in India’s data market so Airtel is conserving its capex for 3G and 4G so that it can give a good fight to Reliance Jio on data services.
The telecom industry is eagerly awaiting the signing of intra-circle roaming agreement with Airtel and BSNL as it will help Airtel to lower its operational cost and on the other hand it will help BSNL to increase its revenue.
