Bharti Airtel, the telecom market leader’s new Rs 2,000 crore plan
Photographs from: Priscilla Du Preez
Bharti Airtel Ltd, one of the market leaders in the telecom industry is on a war footing as it plans to invest Rs 2000 crore over a period of three years as a part of its digital innovation programme intended to improve customer experience.
Christened Project Next, Bharti Airtel’s new programme will include a redesign of its 2,500 retail stores, a revamp of its mobile application, and allow its contract mobile phone subscribers to utilise any unused data in the next billing month under the “Postpaid Promise” plan. It has reportedly hired UK’s 8 Inc. to help design and conceptualise what they call the “Next-Gen Airtel Stores”.
Speaking at a news conference Bharti Airtel’s Chief Executive for India and South Asia Mr Gopal Vittal said,”Over the course of the next 18-24 months you will see a lot more initiatives under Project Next as we transform ourselves into being a fully digital service provider.”
The programme is the latest in its attempt to defend its market share as it fights back against aggressive new rival Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, which took the market by storm with its slew of offers on data and voice calls that disrupted the country’s highly competitive telecoms sector.
The fiercely competitive offers from Reliance Jio left other telecom players scrambling to protect their revenue and profits and forced to respond with price cuts of their own to retain customers. According to rating agency CARE, the telecom industry saw its revenue for the January-March quarter falling more than 15 percent from a year earlier to 408.31 billion rupees hurt by intense competition.
Starting August, Bharti Airtel will now allow its postpaid customers to carry forward up to 200 gigabytes of unused data to the next cycle and also prove an accident protection plan for smartphones.
Under the accident protection plan, if a customer’s device is accidentally damaged, Airtel will arrange for a pick-up of the device, get it repaired from an authorised service center and deliver it back to the customer. The plan comes bundled with a Norton Mobile Security Suite, which will include an anti-malware protection, an App Advisor that flags privacy risks such as intrusive behaviour and also safeguards against phishing and malicious websites while browsing via Wi-Fi or carrier networks.