Sunil Mittal, founder Chairman of Bharti Airtel Ltd had an impeccable record in the industry until 2007. Like many other Indian Businessmen, his decision to move away from his Core Business of Telecommunication Services by diverting Funds and Energy with unrelated venture into Retailing [which was another bad marriage with Wal-Mart] has landed both Telecom and Retail ventures into tight spot.
In this backdrop, we have some tough questions for Sunil Mittal and wonder if he looks at them seriously as Telecom business is challenged and probably requires him to return to the helm of affairs like how Naryan murthy did @ Infosys.
Airtel African Wireless Business Target of $5 billion in revenues and $2 billion in EBITDA seem to be a moving goal-post with not much clarity. What are the reasons behind that? Can you share your initial expectations/ estimates and what is it that matters much for this weak performance?
We acknowledge the fact that Telecom Policy under the Corrupt Congress led UPA Government as been miserable. The Subscriber Growth has already moderated and What is the way forward for Airtel in India ? Will the Business Economics shift from volume-driven growth to pricing-driven growth?
Regulatory and unethical Business Practices How does Airtel Plan to tackle the ongoing Telecom Regulatory / Policy mess ? Airtel has resorted to heavily unethical business practices such as Pre-Paid Mobile Balance Deduction
Airtel 3G and 4G Data 3G Data is yet to take off meaningfully 3 years after the Auction. Is Airtel’s 3G and 4G data business profitable or it is being subsidized by voice? Why hasn’t the management been aggressive in rolling out Handset & Data bundled offers catering to every segment of the market ? Innovative schemes are coming from competitors Idea at Lower end and Reliance 3G at the higher end. Was the upgrade to 4G ahead of time with CSFB networks, while even 3G adoption is relatively muted? Why don’t I see any Innovative Plans to Push 3G Data services forward except your Analytics Team, keep crunching data on how to Maximize ARPU?
We do not consider Reliance Jio Infocomm’s entry as a threat in the near to medium term unless Mukesh Ambani manipulates the Policy in his favor. [Which could be takeover Reliance Communications, MVNO arrangement applicable for unified license Holders to provide 2G Voice, etc] We are sparing Mittal from this over debated topic for now.