Next Gen Telecom – Scripting Growth through Digital

Insights and Perspectives from Akhil Gupta, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises on Next Gen Telecom, during the Voice & Data Telecom Leadership Forum held on 22^nd March 2022.

Akhil Gupta, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, has been an inseparable part of the Telecom Industry in India since the mid-1990s. Ever since the first 2G mobile licenses were issued in the four major metros, he has been an integral part of the growth story of the sector through multiple generations of mobile technology -- 3G, 4G and now 5G. Akhil Gupta’s encyclopedic knowledge and understanding is easily reflected in this Fireside Chat where he breaks down some of the more complex aspects of Policy and Business and the multiple issues faced by the sector, as he peers into the digital future of the sector.

Below are excerpts from his conversation with another veteran of the telecom sector, Manoranjan (Mao) Mohapatra, CEO, Comviva, who started his career at the Bell Labs of India, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) and has spearheaded the evolution and adoption of new applications and digital value-added services by the industry.

Mao Mohapatra:
Very good morning. Happy to have you with us Akhilji and looking forward to learning from your vast understanding of the sector and the challenges in 5G that operators are likely to face.

Akhil Gupta:
Thank you, Mao. Lovely to be on this fireside chat, I think this is a very relevant topic.

You are, of course, the master in dealing with 5G. So I do not know who learns from whom. But it will be interesting to talk about the important issues around 5G development today.

Mao Mohapatra:
For the benefit of the audience, I have learned pretty much everything about telecom from Akhilji.

Sir, the first question I have for you is: These are exciting times and new technologies like the Metaverse are driven by 5G, faster broadband networks, and digital platforms. How do you see operators prioritizing and monetizing these opportunities and what are the challenges?

Akhil Gupta:
So let’s look at all the new technologies. Metaverse comes right on top and is perhaps the biggest in the coming few years. There is one common thread in all of these. And that is bandwidth. All applications need bandwidth, which a telecom operator provides. Something like a Metaverse will need huge dollops of bandwidth.

And that's where I think telecom operators play a major role. There has been a big debate about whether telecom operators should also venture into applications and content. That is the battle. Should Telecom Operators be focusing on networks or should they become digital content providers.  I think those are the two big opportunities (networks and applications). But of course, there's nothing to beat the opportunity on the network side.

Mao Mohapatra:
Sir, customer centricity and customer experiences have become ever more important today. Airtel of course has been at the forefront on this. What is the opportunity for monetizing customer experience – whether leveraging high bandwidth and low latency of 5G or the Metaverse or selling more data.

Akhil Gupta:
From a customer point of view, what do they need. More content, more applications – like video which has seen a quantum jump. From an operator's point of view, to keep the customer happy, I have to provide a great network. 90% of customer satisfaction is network, network, and network. If, as a telecom operator, I can provide a great network, and a great platform where developers, applications, and content providers can come and plugin and these can be made available to my customers seamlessly, I think that will really enhance their experience.

Mao Mohapatra:
Absolutely, sir. Network is the core -- everything else can revolve around it. What are some of the early use cases that you envisage? And when do you think the benefits of 5G will reach teachers, farmers and health workers in remote villages and schools?

Akhil Gupta:
Let me deal with your question about what could be the use cases. Very clearly, a driverless car or robotic surgery may not be the right use case for India immediately. Maybe at a later date, but for now, I can clearly see two, or maybe three big use cases. The first is mobile communications itself. We all come from the 2G era, then we had 3G, 3.5G, GPRS, 3.75G and 4G. Now we are in the 5G age. The speed of data has progressively improved. This is the first one. And I do hope operators are actually able to monetize as 5G is high cost.

The second big use case, in my mind, is to serve the needs of this country. National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP), aims to bring broadband Internet to everybody. That, as you all know, is impossible on wireline. 5G can fill in that gap. Wireless broadband can really be a killer app of 5G.  Finally, Wi-Fi inside buildings and premises, 5G for backhaul can be the other very good use cases.

Mao Mohapatra:
There is a fear of the unknown in my mind, if you look at the G technologies 2G was of course ahead because it provided mobility to people. I personally think 3G was not that great of a success. 4G has done well. The other phenomenon that I have observed is every incremental G, the time to recover investments is short. Because the next G comes quicker. 5G has a lot of investment requirements. Is there a chance that like 3G, where not many people recovered their investments, 5G will simply be overtaken by 6G?

Akhil Gupta:
I'm sure 5G would have a lot of potential.

There was the other part of the earlier question: Can 5G reach the hinterland? I think that is the key question before the operators and the government. I have been advocating that this time around let us walk the talk. The communication policy says that maximizing revenue is not the aim of the government. Providing Internet is.

If that is the case, 5G pricing should encourage rural rollouts. So a lot will depend on the 5G policy.

It needs to bring the Internet to every part. Reasonable pricing will ensure that operators are able to deploy more capital into rolling out networks into smaller towns not just the large metros. And over a period of time, there’ll be a lot more applications particularly suited for far-flung areas – example health services. If a doctor has to examine (not just prescribe medicines) but do a remote examination - you will need 5G. It will benefit society.

Mao Mohapatra:
There is a new trend. Service providers are transforming into platform providers. Rakuten is an example. Closer home, I've read media reports that Jio has a fully developed 5G stack which they would offer to others. I also read about joint initiatives by Tatas and Airtel in 5G.

What is the long-term thinking in becoming a platform provider? Is that just enriching your network? Or do you see a separate line of business altogether?

Akhil Gupta:
Well, first of all, there is a difference between a platform provider and an equipment provider.  I think what many Telcos are trying to do is get into the equipment side. Every company will have its own philosophy. We believe, we can partner with the best. We have done this all along.

Whether we want to get into production ourselves? Maybe not, we are better off confining ourselves to services. It will be an individual choice. As an operator, these are separate hats.

You buy the best, at the most efficient pricing and the most efficient performance. It is good that we are getting into the era of OpenRAN, which means operators’ dependence on proprietary technologies is going away. And then it doesn't really matter who's providing the equipment.

Mao Mohapatra:
OpenRAN enables you to stay away from proprietary technologies. But on the Cloud side there are only a few large platforms like Microsoft, Google or AWS. Does that bring over dependency into the sector?

Akhil Gupta:
Not at all. In fact, even in the traditional world, we always had Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, and were never dependent on only one equipment supplier. Similarly, on the Cloud side, we will have Amazon and Microsoft and Google.

The investment by Google (in Airtel) does not provide any kind of exclusivity. There will be enough competition not to be really worrying about getting trapped.

Mao Mohapatra:
Right. What is your thought behind investing in emerging technologies in-house?  For example in AI or through incubation. Is it because you don't find competent partners to lean on or you want to create differentiation vis a vis competition?

Akhil Gupta:
There is no dearth of competent partners. I think in every field, we see more and more talent and more and more specialization. Why we have been doing some incubation, like I said, is because we want to have a platform, which is in the middle. People can just come and plugin without worrying about APIs being different.

And then we can seamlessly give this to our customers. In order to do that, the best is to incubate and get the real experience of how it is done. What can we do to make it an open platform?

That's the thinking. We have no illusions that we can be the best in AI or other technologies. We will definitely partner with the best in class.

Mao Mohapatra:
You now have a completely new initiative - OneWeb. The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite broadband system. It complements the mobile network but would that be a competition to your own mobile business?

Akhil Gupta:
No. I think no satellite communication, at least in its current form, can be a threat to terrestrial networks. It is purely complementary. The use case of LEO satellite services will be to provide backhaul services to operators in places where it is not feasible. Or services in very remote places, where connectivity is difficult. But that’s far and few. The other use cases are Enterprise Services, government, defense, aviation, marine. Those are the big use cases. Yes, I do envisage and I do hope that one day, the customer devices are able to support both terrestrial and satellite connectivity. Operators can then actually bring the satellite services behind them and make sure that the customers will always get a signal. But it's never going to replace terrestrial. It could be a backup for an operator to give customers a much better experience.

Mao Mohapatra:
I'm sure it will happen. I know Thuraya in the Middle East has a service where they have roaming with the GSM networks. A lot of startups are working in that arena, particularly for IoT and data devices.

Akhil Gupta:
But that won't help because unless the device becomes widely available, there will be very limited applications. So, the key would be, if the device, which is a normal mobile phone can also connect to the satellite. I think that is when the trued benefits of these services can be visible to the telecom operators in a big way.

Mao Mohapatra:
Which brings me to a question that is very close to your heart. Airtel has always innovated and disrupted the market. From completely outsourcing the network, managing only customers and the brand. Creating the minutes factory, bringing down the price of voice & data. Many of them are driven by you personally. What is it that we can expect to see next?

Akhil Gupta:
Well, first of all, let me dispel the doubt, Airtel has never been a disrupter. I think everything which we did, in terms of innovation, has arisen out of two things, either there is a lot of inefficiency. Or there were areas where we did not have enough resources or capabilities. And it always stemmed from our belief that in this world, you must partner and let specialists in any particular area provide the services. It was never a vendor relationship. We tried to make them partners. We extended this to our competitors. While we compete on the front end, we can collaborate on the backend. We have tried to see how all of us can benefit. Example by sharing infrastructure or supplementing where I lack. Comviva, for instance, is very good at some things. I'd partner with you. Why would I want another Comviva in my system?

So that has been the philosophy that guides us. And with that philosophy, as you can imagine, possibilities are always endless. Hopefully, we will continue doing efficient things like that.

Mao Mohapatra:
My last question. You have personally done a lot of pioneering work on passive network sharing across operators. 5G makes active network sharing a possibility. Do you really see that happening?

Akhil Gupta:
Yeah, I think again, it is very much in the digital communication policy. IP-1 licenses have been mandated to get into some parts of active network sharing. For instance antennas. They can definitely have common antennas, common radios. I think some regulatory work is going on. But again, I always believe that the infrastructure provider must never compete with the operator, who is their customer. Therefore, we have been suggesting to TRAI and DoT, on the scope of this sharing. There should be conditions that they will not offer services to the end customer. They must offer services to licensed operators only. And I think that's a win-win for everybody.

Mao Mohapatra:
Thank You Sir. It’s been a pleasure talking to you and learning from you, as always.

Akhil Gupta:
My pleasure Mao, Good to see you. Thank you.