TelecomTalk Podcast

We Talk About the Effects of the Prepaid Tariff Hikes in India in the Long-Term | Ep - 17

One of the questions that a lot of people have in their mind today is, how much more will they have to pay for data once the private telecom operators are done with multiple tariff hikes. In late 2021, Airtel was the first to announce that it will be going with tariff hikes. Vodafone Idea followed it with a similar announcement but implemented tariff hikes a day earlier than Airtel. A few days later, even Jio hiked tariffs of prepaid plans.  Airtel is eyeing for an average revenue per user (ARPU) figure of Rs 300 from its India mobile business. But the telco won’t be able to do it with a single tariff hike and won’t even wait for too long to reach there. This means that in the span of next two to three years, the prepaid tariffs from Airtel are going to go up by at least 50% to 70% (rough estimation) if multiple tariff hikes are factored. Naturally, Vodafone Idea is going to do the same followed by Reliance Jio.  So, this begs the question, are we going back to the pre-Jio era where Indians used to pay a very steep amount for a single gigabyte of 4G data? 5G is going to arrive in the country very soon. It will be interesting to see how it affects the amount of data normal users consume. Because with 4G, the more expensive it gets, the lesser people are going to consume it.

Aviation Sector and 5G Deployment Won't Intersect Each Other | Abhishek Malhotra | Ep - 16

Aviation Sector across the world was worried looking at what was happening in the United States (U.S.). But it shouldn't worry the Indian airlines or the Indian aviation sector because the 5G problems that affect the U.S. airlines is very different from that of what is happening in India. It all depends on how a country is deploying 5G. In India, the 5G deployment will happen in such a manner that it won't interfere with the sensitive aircraft equipment.

Arvind Bali, CEO, TSSC | Interview | Ep - 15

India might require a whopping 22 million or 2.2 crore skilled manpower within 2025 as the country is taking a giant leap into the next-generation 5G-led technologies including AI, IoT, cloud computing and robotics, noted the telecom skills body.    There is a huge workforce in the need to upskill themselves to match the huge demand in the industry. India is poised to become a global supplier of human resources and electronics. To achieve this, there is a need to create an extended skill network with both academia and industry participation.

Airtel Payments Bank Arguably the Best Fintech in India Right Now | Episode - 14

Airtel Payments Bank (APB), an online banking subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, the second-largest telecom operator in the country, had a great performance in 2021. APB benefitted a lot from the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) [https://telecomtalk.info/rbi-brings-in-new-guidelines-for-online/486787/] decision of increasing the day-end savings limit to Rs 2 lakh last year. Earlier, the limit was Rs 1 lakh. As customers or users could save more money in their APB online savings account, the customer deposits went up to Rs 1,000 crore in 2021.

Airtel is Going to Get $1 Billion from Google, What to Know | Ep - 13

Google is going to invest over $1 billion in Bharti Airtel as part of its Google for India Digitisation Fund. It is a long-term and multi-year deal where Airtel and Google will work together to explore and co-create India specific use-cases of 5G along with other standards and also work towards the acceleration of cloud ecosystem for businesses across India. Bharti Airtel is also going to give an equity stake to Google against the investment.