Airtel leverages Juggernaut to add e-books to its digital content pipeline

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel Ltd, whose digital content includes music streaming app Wynk Music and video streaming app Airtel TV, will soon launch Airtel Books, featuring a collection of e-books for smartphone users.

The launch is aimed at upgrading Airtel’s subscribers to higher tariff plans and retaining them on its network in this hyper-competitive wireless services market where it battles rivals Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd.

The digital content strategy of telcos has become crucial as cheap data tariffs have ceased to provide a meaningful competitive edge in the telecom industry. Airtel has 284.2 million paying subscribers on its network as of December-end. Wynk has 120 million users, while Airtel TV has 80 million users.