Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Monday said it may invest an additional $200-400 million in the current financial year to ramp up 3G and 4G infrastructure.
The company had already announced a capital expenditure guidance of about $3 billion for this fiscal.
“Our willingness to spend an additional $200-400 million on capex during the course of this year. A large part of that capex would really be around expanding our footprint in 3G and 4G,” Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said during an investor call.
He added that when 3G network is expanded, voice quality also improves. “... In a way it’s actually killing two birds with one stone, which is the investment actually goes to drive incremental revenue streams, which is around data but at the same time, it creates the capacity to unclog 2G networks, especially in situations where spectrum has been reduced for markets like Delhi and that helps the overall call quality,” Vittal added.
On the issue of call drops, Vittal said the company is working with the Government to address the problem.