Notes from Airtel's earnings conference call for Q2-FY18 1. The impact of low data tariffs/below cost pricing: Has "fuelled a surge in the industry’s voice and data traffic indicating latency of demand." Multi-simming has declined, and unlimited voice bundles have started "squeezing out ‘second sim’ operators." "Smaller operators with weak financials and networks are facing faster churn thereby accelerating their need for exit opportunities and faster industry consolidation." "...value players by and large have been melting down much faster. So if you look at our performance, you will find it substantially better than the smaller players.They have really been hit very hard on account of this competitive intensity and Tata Teleservices and Telenor are no different in that scenario. So as time goes on, there will be revenue decline." Increased data demand requires higher investments, which cash strapped operators cannot afford. "If you look at Q2, we have done about 780 billion megabytes on the network compared to 470 billion megabytes in the prior quarter. So, we are seeing massive growth in data throughputs and data demand. And so a lot of capex is really going behind investing in our radio networks, which is primarily 4G and investing in transmission and fiber backhaul, which again is required for heavy data throughputs. So if pricing continues to remain low, this capex will be required in order to deliver a better customer experience. I think the good news from our perspective is we have the spectrum. So the bulk of the heavy…
