Airtel says developing hybrid working business solutions; plans to launch adtech platform: Report

India’s second-largest telco Bharti Airtel said it has witnessed an increase in demand for hybrid working models–one that involves both remote working and work from even as vaccination program gains pace in India, the telco’s chief product officer Adarsh Nair told Mint.

Nair added that the telco is developing packages that comprise several services such as cybersecurity solutions, video conferencing, and cloud platforms either by using the available technologies or by acquiring new products, as demand grows.

“We are doing two things—one, we are simply packaging the technologies that we already have. Second, as Airtel is evolving, we are also realizing that some additional packaging is required, we are buying and packaging those technologies into new products,” he told the publication.

According to Nair, the Sunil Mittal-led telco is also betting on adtech in a “big way” and it further plans to monetise demand from premium customers.

Nair’s comments come at a time when Airtel is fighting stiff competition with Ambani’s Reliance Jio.

As of December 31, Airtel’s subscribers base swelled to 338.70 million, having gained 4.05 million wireless subscribers against Jio’s subscribers base of 408.77 million.

Nair added that it will offer its channels to enterprises who wish to sell their products or services to Airtel’s subscribers through the adtech platform.

Elaborating further, the top executive said the adtech technology will be built on Airtel’s core business with marginal investment.

Airtel will also link OTT player Hotstar’s content library with the adtech library, bundled with other plans, to offer to its premium subscribers.

“Like adtech, we have five-six incubations happening inside Airtel, which we will bring one by one. Everything outside this, we will partner with,” he was quoted as saying by the publication. Though he did not divulge further details about the other digital services Airtel is working on.

On 17 February, Airtel announced plans to rejig the company’s structure to unlock revenue potential from consumer-facing digital and non-telecom businesses, ET had reported.

Its online music streaming service–Wynk Music–also launched Wynk Stage for live concerts during the pandemic and so far, it has gained a crowd size of 50,000-1,00,000.

“The average concert size is now 50,000 and the biggest ones go up to 100,000… We have taken a target of a 500,000-person concert this year,” Nair further said and added that the telco will monetise it in three ways.

First, the live concerts will be available through the Wynk Premium Pack. Secondly, it will sell tickets for digital concerts, and lastly, it will earn B2B revenue through sponsorships.