Pankaj Agrawal, director, Capitel Partners, has experience of more than a decade in the telecom sector, which has allowed him to develop a close understanding of the sector. Leveraging his vast experience and knowledge, he currently provides techno-commercial consultancy services to hedge funds, private equity firms, service providers and original equipment manufacturers. He advises clients on transactions, spectrum auctions, business and network planning, and go-to-market strategies.

Agrawal launched Capitel Partners two years ago. Prior to that, he was heading the Indian operations of global consultancy firm Analsys Mason. He was also associate director at BDA, China,

a TMT consulting firm. “Before that, I was working with Deloitte in the US, working primarily on spectrum auctions,” he says.

Agrawal has also worked with Bharti Airtel, where he was involved in the national revenue planning and pricing management for the company’s Indian operations. In the past, he has also been a part of the Indian Telecom Services under the Department of Telecommunications.

Commenting on the telecom sector, Agrawal says that growth will be driven by data services going forward. The data experience will improve significantly for customers when operators offer these services through lower frequency bands rather than using spectrum in the 2100 MHz band.

For him, the most memorable assignment was advising a telecom operator on spectrum acquisition in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands in the auctions. “It was challenging because many operators were competing in the auctions, and we needed to have a good understanding of the market and the strategies that other operators were likely to follow,” Agrawal recalls.

He believes that his ability to transform start-ups into sca-lable entities and his knowledge of technology and economics are his key strengths.

The company is venturing into the Asian market by opening its first office in Singapore. “The next level of growth will come from scaling up our India-centric business model to become more prevalent in Asia and subsequently across emerging markets,” he says.

Agrawal likes to spend his spare time reading books and playing tennis. About his family, he says, “My wife manages the CSR programme of a school in Gurgaon.” Agrawal has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and bachelor’s in technology from the National Institute of Technology, Raipur.