Idea Cellular will focus on building more wireless broadband infrastructure, and bandwidth to keep up with competition and growing demand for 4G data among users. The company’s MD and Director Himanshu Kapania said during a recent analyst call that the company will “start active infrastructure sharing in the new financial year with top 2 to 3 incumbent operators to further expand its services.” Active infrastructure allows telcos to use their own spectrum, but run this on equipment from other telcos/ISPs. The company will also allocate Rs 60 billion as capital expenditure (CapEx) for FY 2017-18, primarily for building broadband infrastructure, apart from active equipment sharing arrangements. Kapania said that Idea has spent close to Rs 155 billion in CapEx in the past two years alone for expanding its wireless broadband capacity. He also points out that telecom companies are now focusing on building maximum broadband capacity (due to Jio’s entry) as opposed to the “age-old approach” of building capacity only when required or when demand goes up. Note that Idea’s competitor Airtel already has active sharing tie-ups and with Idea reciprocating the same strategy, one can assume that incumbent operators are interconnected in terms of network infrastructure. Note that Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea already own Indus Towers, a tower infrastructure firm. Idea’s investments in Fiber Kapania said that the company has a two-part strategy for expanding its fiber reach: i) “Expanding kilometers of fiber”: Idea added 29,100 Kms of fiber capacity in FY17 with the total capacity spanning 114,600 Kms. …
