Airtel sees 110% on-yr spike in international roaming pack subscriptions in April

Bharti Airtel has seen a 110% spike in international travel pack subscription on year for the month of April on the back of its integrated international roaming offering, a senior company official told ET.

The growth was led by markets like Mumbai which was 102% year on year growth on this metric, even as international travel grew 35% for the same period.

“The new international roaming packs were launched keeping affordability, convenience and security (for customers) in mind,” Vibhor Gupta, chief executive, Mumbai, Bharti Airtel said.

Airtel revamped its international roaming offerings in December last year to provide roaming services across 184 countries under one pack. In addition to voice minutes and data allowances, these packs also offer real time usage tracking, and customer support over WhatsApp.

“With this pack, travellers do not need to submit extra documents or change SIM cards to use roaming services. Also, for people calling them from India, it continues to be a local call,” Gupta added.

In addition to this, the telco has also seen a spike in attracting high value customers on the back of the revamped international roaming offering, it said.

With the launch of 5G and the resulting investments in network upgrade, telcos have ramped up focus on the higher paying postpaid segment to increase average revenue per user (ARPU).

Initiatives like competitive international roaming offerings, are expected to help grow the postpaid subscriber share since those availing these packs are often postpaid customers, especially corporate clients.

Airtel’s international roaming packs start at Rs 133 a day, and can be activated for one day if need be. Its 30-day pack costs Rs 3999, which compares to around Rs 6400 for a similar validity pack offered by competition.

Since the launch of these packs, the telco has taken below-the-line (BTL) initiatives to create awareness about the same. These include communication about the packs at various Airtel touchpoints, messages, and mailers sent to registered users of the network.

As an on-ground tactic, the telco has also set up kiosks at various major international airports where customers can activate the roaming travel packs just before boarding the flight as well.

The 10 day validity pack is the most popular among Airtel’s customers, the company said.