Bharti Airtel is the world’s third largest mobile service provider by subscribers after China Mobile and Vodafone with over 270 million global customers. It is also India’s biggest wireless telecom operator both by subscribers and revenue. Those numbers came in at 193.5 million and Rs. 113 billion ($1.8 billion) respectively after the end of latest quarter. Again, these figures are just for Airtel’s mobile services in India. The telco also provides mobile telephony services in 20 other Asian and African countries. Given the challenging (but improving) telecom sector sentiment in India, it is worthwhile to discuss a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis for the company.
Strengths:
• Biggest mobile service provider in world’s second largest telecom market – Mobile phone subscriptions now follow the normal population trends around the world. With about 870 million wireless subscriptions, India ranks second after China in the wireless market. Airtel has a 22.2% share of that market.
• Well-established nationwide infrastructure – Airtel has been in the market for 18 years and thus has towers and backhaul all over the country. This is a major advantage. Deployment of new technologies or increasing capacity at times requires software and minimal hardware upgrade. Having infrastructure already on the ground makes that process much faster and smoother. Secondly, it is easier to capture new customers if a telco already has a network in place.
• High brand equity – Airtel is among India’s most visible brands omnipresent in most parts of the nation through television, print and various other forms of advertising. Celebrity endorsements and innovative advertising that understand the pulse of market are some of the assets of the Airtel brand.
• Superior overall network quality and reliability – Bharti Airtel (along with Vodafone) runs one of the better mobile networks’ in India. They have nationwide penetration and although there is no dearth of consumer complaints regarding dropped calls and slow data against Airtel, it still offers a higher quality telecom service experience as compared to most other telcos.
Weaknesses –
• High competition in the telecom market – Airtel, like all other service providers in India, has been adversely affected by the extreme price competition. Although the average voice call rates have gone up recently, they were as low as Rs. 0.6/min. (1 cent/min.) a few years ago. The story is similar with data and 3G tariffs. As a result, the company has been reporting declining profits for many years. ARPU had been decreasing too although it is showing signs of bottoming out now.
• Debt and finances – According to their latest quarterly report, Airtel is burdened by $9.7 billion in net debt, which is a lot of money when converted to rupees. How can Airtel repay this debt is the question? Possibilities include stake and equity sale or spike in revenue. Depreciating rupee is also an issue since it results in foreign exchange losses and increases the financing cost.
Africa acquisitions and operations – Airtel acquired Zain’s Africa business for $9 billion in 2010. Since then, it has struggled to turn around those operations reporting repeated losses from the continent. While the Africa operation has widened the companies’ geography, it continues to be a drag on its balance sheet.
• Late adoption of 3G and advanced wireless technologies – Due to various regulatory uncertainties and delayed spectrum auctions, India and Airtel were late to the 3G party. 3G services were launched by Airtel only in early 2011. The data tariffs were high, speeds were unsatisfactory and customer acceptance of 3G was slow. The company lacks nationwide 3G license with spectrum in 13 out of 22 telecom service areas. Airtel’s LTE network for mobile broadband is still confined to only 4 cities in India.
Opportunities:
• Untapped voice market – Despite many believing that the voice market in India is close to saturation, hundreds of millions remain without a phone. Recently, VLR (Visitor Location Register) numbers released by the regulator TRAI, showed that around 730 million out of the total 870 million are active connections. Given many people in India use multiple SIMs, it is safe to say that mobile phone penetration in the country is less than 50%. The opportunity for Airtel is huge, especially in the rural segment.
• 3G and data revenue – Airtel’s 3G subscribers constitute less than 5% of its total subscriber base. Apart from getting new 3G customers to join Airtel, there is immense room for growth within its existing customers. The operator should be more aggressive in marketing the benefits of high speed data access on phone. Simultaneously, it must ensure faster and consistent data speeds on its network.
• LTE – The whole wireless world is moving towards LTE. LTE for mobile broadband can be a good solution for India where fixed broadband penetration is otherwise low. Airtel has taken the lead with this version of LTE in 4 cities, but deployment needs to catch up pace. Despite a weak LTE ecosystem in India, Airtel should portray itself as the embracer of that technology. It must pursue the device manufacturers to produce LTE capable phones for India and then take the lead in the deployment of LTE for cellular networks too.
• Mergers and Acquisitions – Unfortunately, the M&A rules in India are yet to formally declared although recent media reports have suggested that companies may be allowed to merge as long as their market share in every circle is less than 50%. Airtel with a market share of 22.2% should be good to acquire smaller telcos to reduce competition and add subscribers and spectrum. Such acquisitions will incur huge spectrum costs, but it could be well worth it in the long term.
Threats:
• Unfriendly regulatory environment – The telecom industry in India has been plagued by a hostile and unstable regulatory scenario. This has adversely affected the industry sentiment and the wireless service providers. While some clarity has begun to emerge, many guidelines are far from certain. Airtel has not remained untouched from this chaos. And this threat would continue to linger for the next few years.
• Spectrum Auctions and Refarming – Government of India and TRAI kept a high reserve price for 3G, BWA and the recent 1800 MHz auction. Airtel had spent Rs. 123 billion ($2.7 billion per rupee to dollar conversion back then) for 3G airwaves. Since the returns are slow due to low tariffs, buying the spectrum at high price is detrimental for the telcos. Refarming 900 MHz is another terrible idea which would negatively impact Airtel’s finances, given that it will have to repurchase those airwaves to continue 2G operations.
• Mobile Number Portability – MNP gives the customer independence to change the service provider while retaining the number. With similar tariffs across various telcos and satisfaction with the current service provider being low, consumers are willing to jump ship. The larger incumbent operators are losing millions of customers to the newer players who attract these customers with their freebies and innovative offers.