The Indian telecom operator wants to capture the number one slot in Africa at the earliest, eating into

leader MTN's shares. Currently, the subscriber gap between MTN and Zain Africa is 35 million. Manoj Kohli, the head of Bharti Airtel s International operations, Africa is betting on the 106 million households in Africa with an income of $5,000 or more by 2014. There were 59 million such households in 2009. Moreover, there are more middle class households in Africa than in India, says Kohli. The middle class are those with an annual income of $20,000 and above. Kohli says with rising urbanization in Africa, expected to go up to 50 per cent by 2030 from 40 per cent at present, an expanding subscriber base can be expected. Further, with a working population of 500 million, Africa is seen as a big opportunity. It gets bigger by 2040 with working population growing to 1.1 billion which is more than China and India, he says. By 2040, about 20 per cent of the youth (18 years of age) would be in Africa and they would also form a significant chunk of the working population. The opportunity is big. So is the challenge. Kohli says: The success of the India model can be replicated. And What is the India model? It is low tariff, adding more subscribers and targetting the youth segment. The service and operational efficiency are our strength in India, says Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Airtel. To begin with, in the second quarter of 2010-11, the company will launch its brand in all the 15 countries. It will start executing the new business models from the third quarter. In his presentation on the company s Africa plans, he pointed out that the company would identify the specific strategy for each of the 15 countries where it would offer services. He is confident of generating independent revenues streams by the fourth quarter . The company is also betting on superior network quality, deeper distribution, driving affordability, product innovations and global services to give its services a growth rate that would outpace its competitors in Africa. Apart from the mobile tower company that it plans to set up in Africa, the company will focus on immediately offering wireless broadband services on second generation (2G) network. It hopes to offer mobile commerce in 2G. It is risk, as the quality of such high applications services on 2G spectrum have not taken off globally. But Mittal is confident that spectrum availability is not an issue. It is available in abundance unlike here (in India), he said while announcing the completion of Zain acquisition on Tuesday. Kohli would have his office in Nairobi. He would be accompanied by a 50-member Indian contingent. The challenge for him is to convert the operations in 15 countries into profit ventures, under brand Airtel.

Reference: http://www.businessworld.in/bw/2010_06_09_Bharti_Charts_Africa_Plans.html