Bharti Airtel, with over 75 million subscribers, now ranks amongst the top telecom companies in the world. What is the next step for the company?

Our vision is very clear. We want to be the most admired brand in India by 2010. We are fully committed to that vision and are progressing towards it. Whether we are number 3 or 5 or 10 in the world is less important than achieving that vision.

With the expected launch of media and entertainment services like directto-home (DTH) and internet protocol TV (IPTV) in the next quarter, we will get closer to achieving our vision. We will be able to offer our customers not only telecom but media products as well. Telecom and TV together make a powerful combination that can increase our wallet share of Indian customers.

What is the single biggest challenge for Bharti Airtel today?

Our biggest challenge is to differentiate Bharti Airtel from all other companies in the market. We are trying to differentiate ourselves primarily on the basis of service quality and new, innovative products, services and features. This is the single biggest external challenge from the market point of view. From an internal point of view, since Bharti is one of the leading operators, our key challenge is to avoid becoming complacent or arrogant. We need to inculcate a culture of continuous improvement –­ a culture where we are always dissatisfied with the present and are always trying to outpace ourselves by acting on the feedback we receive. We should be trying always to improve ourselves.

As a leading player in the market, how do you plan to retain your competitive edge?

We have a multi-fold strategy for the coming years. In the mobility segment, we will continue to enhance our focus on the rural market and 3G. The rural emphasis, involving network, distribution and brand, will give us a higher market share in the villages. 3G and data services will strengthen our position in the urban market.

In the non-mobility segment, we are trying to focus on each business. There are good long-term growth prospects. For instance, DSL-based broadband services are taking off very well, and we have crossed the 2.5 million customer mark. We are doing very well in the fixed line segment too. There are plans to launch IPTV services for our broadband customers as an additional product that will contribute to the wallet share of the company.

The enterprise business is also a very important growth area for the company. The business caters to carriers (for international and national long distance services) as well as corporates. We currently serve over 2,000 large corporations including Fortune 500 companies. Significantly, we are looking at the small and medium business (SMB) segment. There are over 6 million SMBs in India. Of course, we will focus more on medium enterprises.

The focus on SMBs, enterprises, broadband and broadband products will increase significantly in the future. This is in addition to the new launches in TV which will happen in the next quarter. The launches in Sri Lanka will take place in October.

How is Bharti placed vis-a-vis international operators?

In the wireless segment, in terms of subscriber volume in a single country, we are number three in the world after two Chinese operators. For a company that is 13 years old, this is a tremendous achievement. Bharti is also amongst the most integrated telecom operators in the world with a portfolio comprising broadband, fixed line, national/international long distance and data services. We are now getting into both IPTV and satellite TV. We are the leaders in products like VSAT, which may not be very large but are nevertheless important.

Integrating all the products at the back end as well as the front end is a challenge. We have an ongoing programme called One Airtel under which the entire back end of IT networks, processes and automation is being integrated. We will also integrate the front end of customer services so that the consumer is able to use multiple offerings. With greater integration, we will be able to address a larger wallet share of the customer. Rather than the customers going to multiple brands, they can access all the products and services from the media and telecom portfolio of one brand.

With the merger talks with MTN falling through, what new markets are you looking at now?

We have a unique business model with which we aspire to enter emerging markets. I am particularly focusing on neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, where we are planning to launch services soon. We will definitely look at the other neighbouring markets that are growing quite well. As for large acquisitions, we cannot make any statement right now.

What time-frame are you looking at for rolling out 3G services? Will there to be rapid uptake of 3G services in India?

We will be able to launch commercial 3G services in about six months of being allocated spectrum. The uptake of 3G services in India should be good at the upper end of the market, especially with customers who are high users of voice, in addition to sophisticated customers who use a lot of data and download a lot of content, etc. However, the popularity of 3G will also depend on the price of 3G handsets. If the prices go down fast, it would drive uptake.

Bharti's broadband subscriber base hasbeen rising steadily. What are the company's future plans for the segment, especially with respect to Wi-Max?

We are committed to bringing high speed packet access to our Indian customers. After the auction process, we should be able to launch commercial services within six months. On the Wi-Max front, we would like to concentrate on enterprise and SMB customers. As of now, we primarily use Wi-Max to provide last mile connectivity to enterprise customers in many cities in India.

What are the plans for DTH services?

DTH services will be launched in the next quarter. We will differentiate our DTH services with respect to quality, level of interactivity and content.

How do you expect the entry of new telecom players to impact Bharti?

We always welcome competition. We believe that Bharti will get stronger as new competitors enter the market, just as we have kept getting stronger in the past 10 years.

How do you view Idea Cellular's recent merger with Spice Communications? Does Bharti have any domestic consolidation or acquisition plans?

While we don't have any such plans, we welcome and encourage consolidation in the domestic market. It leads to more orderly development; having too many scattered, regional players is not good for the industry in the long term. It is good news that some regional players are becoming national players.

How has Bharti performed in the rural segment? What are some of the key challenges?

The rural market in India is the single largest market in the world with over 700 million potential customers. Bharti's performance in the rural segment has been good and our market shares are growing. We currently cover 365,000 villages and are adding 20,000-25,000 villages to our coverage area every quarter. Our alliances with Nokia and IFFCO are also doing well.

We don't follow an ARPU model. We have a per minute model, and the rural segment is providing high minutes of usage and margins. Our single biggest challenge in the rural markets is limited power availability; in a lot of villages there is no power at all. We have to run generators round the clock, and that is a tough proposition.

BlackBerry or iPhone –­ which is expected to be more popular with Bharti subscribers?

Both handsets are very popular. The BlackBerry is a business handset and is more popular with corporate and SMB customers and even with entrepreneurs. It has excellent data services and, with the launch of the new BlackBerry model, has become a good voice handset too. Bharti is the leader in the BlackBerry market.

The iPhone is a new offering. It goes beyond business and a lot of non-business customers are picking it up. Our initial reports of volumes are very good. In fact, we are generating far higher volumes than the other brand in India. We also have the USP of offering Airtel Live on the iPhone. In conclusion, both handsets are extremely popular in different segments.

When do you expect to launch Bharti Infratel's initial public offering (IPO)?

Both our tower companies, Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, are working very well. They are fully staffed and led by professional CEOs. I am a customer of both these tower companies. There might be an IPO in two to three years, but there are no plans to have a public issue any time soon. "Our biggest challenge is to differentiate Bharti Airtel from all other companies in the market. We are trying to differentiate ourselves on the basis of service quality and new, innovative products, services and features."