Bharti Airtel to focus on rural markets to narrow gap with Reliance Jio

Bharti Airtel is focusing on rural markets to tap into the growing demand for 4G services in those areas and narrow the gap with market leader Reliance Jio.

Chief Executive Officer Gopal Vittal said 40 per cent of the industry’s net 4G additions are coming from rural areas and the company is using the data science model to target specific growth areas.

“We are sending our people to the field to determine where the opportunity is. Even more important, we have designed and built lower-cost sites that will allow us to expand profitably,” Vittal said at an after-results conference call on Tuesday.

As of end-September, Airtel had had over 327 million mobile customers.