Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the enterprise in 1976 as an 18-year-old producing bicycle parts in Ludhiana before launching mobile services in Delhi in 1995. Now, he is preparing to transform Airtel into a digital technology provider spanning artificial intelligence, sovereign cloud, and satellite services. To support these investments and cover operational costs, Mittal is pushing for monthly telecom industry average revenue per user to reach about Rs 350. Airtel's most recent September quarter showed an average revenue per user of Rs 271, leaving a notable gap to his proposed benchmark.
Key points
Mittal aims to increase the telecom industry's monthly average revenue per user to approx…: Mittal aims to increase the telecom industry's monthly average revenue per user to approximately Rs 350.
Meeting the proposed tariff target will require an approximate 29 percent rise in average…: Meeting the proposed tariff target will require an approximate 29 percent rise in average revenue per user.
The group plans to transform Airtel into a tech enterprise spanning artificial intelligen…: The group plans to transform Airtel into a tech enterprise spanning artificial intelligence, cloud, and satellites.
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New Delhi: When Sunil Bharti Mittal set up a small manufacturing unit making bicycle parts in Ludhiana in 1976, he was barely 18. Fifty years later, the founder of Bharti Enterprises is presiding over a business empire whose flagship, Bharti Airtel, has become one of the world's largest telecommunications companies.
The journey from bicycle crankshafts to mobile networks, submarine cables and satellite communications has been marked by bets that often ran ahead of the market, setbacks triggered by policy changes and three major crises that Mittal describes as Bharti's "Mahabharatas".
Now, as the group marks its 50th anniversary, Mittal is preparing for another transformation. He wants Airtel to evolve from a telecommunications operator into a digitally enabled technology company, with connectivity at its core and businesses spanning artificial intelligence, sovereign cloud, digital finance and satellite services.
Also Read: ET Exclusive | Sunil Mittal’s next big bets: AI, cloud, space telecom and a billion Airtel users
His prescription for India's digital economy is equally expansive: higher mobile tariffs, financially stronger telecom operators, a substantial expansion of network infrastructure and greater national…
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