Bharti Airtel to Spend $9 Billion on India Mobile Network
November 30 2015 - 4:40AM
Dow Jones News
NEW DELHI—India's largest cellular operator, Bharti Airtel Ltd.,
plans to spend $9 billion to improve its mobile data network in the
country, the company said Monday.
Much of this money will be invested in laying fiber optic cables
and improving network signals in congested areas.
Despite Airtel spending hundreds of millions of dollars to rent
bandwidth from the Indian government, "there are still problems
with the network," said Gopal Vittal, the company's chief
executive.
While smartphone ownership is rising rapidly in India, the
country's network of cellphone towers has struggled to keep
pace.
For example, Airtel says it has roughly half the number of
towers it needs in the heart of New Delhi to provide full coverage
there.
Mobile network operators say that they haven't been able to
improve network coverage in India because of the high fees they pay
the government for the right to offer cellular broadband
services.
During the latest auction in March, companies agreed to pay
$17.6 billion for broadband spectrum rights.
That left little money to spend on enhancing the networks, these
companies say.
Airtel said it would take on debt to fund its improvements.
Write to Sean McLain at sean.mclain@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 30, 2015 04:25 ET (09:25 GMT)
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