Airtel aims to become a pan-India 5G player; sees opportunity in 2G to 4G migration: Gopal Vittal

Bharti Airtel’s chief executive officer said that the telco is aiming to be a pan-India 5G operator in the long-term, but the high-speed internet service will initially be available in urban areas of the country.

“…In any technology that we use, in the long term, we will need to be a Pan-India national player. In the short term, if you want to optimize the pace of rollout and the pace of adoption, yes, obviously it will start in urban areas,” Gopal Vittal, CEO said during an investor call post Q3 results announcement by Bharti Airtel.

“Any new technology typically starts in urban areas, because the price of the device is the constraint and those tend to be higher in the early years and slowly start getting massified,” he added.