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Airtel-Zain may shake up Africa
Manoj Kohli, the handpicked man to handle Sunil Bharti Mittal’s new adventure in Africa, looks set to launch a price war in the continent, where 15 nations fall within his ambit after Bharti Airtel sealed its deal to buy Zain’s Africa operations.
Manoj Kohli, the handpicked man to handle Sunil Bharti Mittal’s new adventure in Africa, looks set to launch a price war in the continent, where 15 nations fall within his ambit after Bharti Airtel sealed its deal to buy Zain’s Africa operations.
The company is working on a new business model that will be based on its successful model in India, and these include outsourcing of network and IT services so it can concentrate on services, and sharing of infrastructure. The company will also work closely with the governments in all the 15 countries to reduce interconnection charges.
This is expected to bring down capital expenditure as well as operating expenses, while shared infrastructure will help the industry as a whole and help lower tariffs.
“Our first priority is to understand customers. We have to understand why customers in Africa use only 70 –80 minutes, while in India customers use 500 minutes,” Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) of Bharti Airtel, told Hindustan Times.
The average tariff in Africa is about 10 times higher than that in India, whereas operators are offering calls at the rate of one paisa per second.
Bharti Airtel is among the first companies in the world to go for the so-called “managed capacity and managed services” model. Under this, an operator pays for the network based on usage, with low upfront payments.
Bharti will hive off towers into independent entities in all the countries. “We will invite other operators to join us and to share towers. This is similar to what we have done in India,” Kohli said. Though Airtel is present in places like Sri Lanka and Seychelles, the Zain deal marks its first real big push in overseas markets.
