Airtel isn't focused on its margins in Africa at the moment, but on gaining revenue and revenue marketshare. On its earnings conference call, which ended an hour ago, Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) & Joint Managing Director of Bharti Airtel said that the company has gained revenue marketshare in each of the 15 markets. Responding to a question on whether a lower tariff strategy has been accepted in the markets, Kohli said that the company doesn't have a lower tariff strategy in Africa, but intends to utilize its higher pricing power. "The costs in Africa are much higher than India. We're testing carefully, market by market, but overall objective is to increase traffic, go deep into the market, and give 3G led data services. ARPU has gone up. Tariff reduction is not the (core) strategy." Kohli said that investments will continue at the company, which doesn't appear to have settled in yet, and many changes are still required: there is a need to rebuild the network and grow the depth of the network in many markets. "Till we catch up and improve network coverage, we will continue to be in investment mode. I can't give you a date by which we'll reach there (though he later said it will 2-3 quarters to close the gap). The rollout will pick up from this quarter onwards. Investments are being made, and there will be extra costs of rollout. A restructuring of each part of the business is continuing, and it is happening at…
