Bharti Airtel is eyeing to bag the top rank in India by revenue market share (RMS) from Vodafone Idea by the end of this fiscal
Bharti Airtel has, reportedly, expressed interest in partnering with Vodafone Idea to co-own Indus Towers, their fibre networks. According to senior executives, the network provider’s aim is to boost growth and regain revenue leadership by March 2019.
“We will be delighted to share and create one company. We have already built a lot of fibre with Vodafone Idea and over the past two years, a lot of sharing has happened between the two companies,” a top company official was quoted by ET. One of the officials also said that although Indus Towers offered monetisation, the plan was to jointly own it.
Indus Towers fibre networks
Indus Towers offers passive infrastructure facilities to telecom operators. Formed in 2007, the independently managed company was promoted under a joint venture between Bharti Group’s Bharti Infratel, Vodafone and Aditya Birla Telecom. With around 122,730 telecom towers in 15 circles across the country, Indus Towers has the widest coverage.
Eyeing market share
Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel have been facing tough competition from Reliance Jio lately. Telecom companies are exploring ways to ramp up their performances and regain market share in India. According to OpenSignal, a wireless coverage mapping firm, Airtel and Jio are the 4G experts. While Jio tops the charts with 96.70 per cent network coverage, Airtel is ahead in the speed rate card. Both the entities are looking at expanding their reach.
Airtel’s focus is to regain its top rank by revenue market share (RMS) from Vodafone Idea by the end of this financial year.
In the third quarter of 2018, Vodafone Idea recorded an RMS of 32.8 per cent. It was followed by Bharti at 30.9 per cent and Reliance Jio at 26.1 per cent.
