Manoj Kohli
CEO & Joint Managing Director
Bharti Airtel
Closing the 2009 Accenture Global Convergence Forum, Manoj Kohli, CEO & joint managing director of Bharti Airtel began his speech saying that Bharti Airtel is the child of competition, and was born in the liberalized economy of India. "The foundation of Bharti Airtel is in entrepreneurship and innovation, and in employee passion and enthusiasm." Such intrinsic values have helped move Bharti Airtel toward a new outlook, where convergence is rapidly becoming a reality and changing the everyday lives of many consumers.
Ubiquitous network access and the sophisticated devices available today make it possible for anyone to easily access digital media anywhere and anytime. Present-day consumers are becoming increasingly mobile in both developed and emerging markets, and therefore need multiple access points to the same content. This is a great opportunity, he said, as well as a difficult challenge for service providers who increasingly aspire to become lifestyle enablers, shifting from their traditional role of being pipe providers.
According to Kohli, Bharti Airtel, is leading the way in becoming an established lifestyle enabler with its four screen strategy. This is being enabled with high-speed broadband networks and wireless services and applications that are reshaping the global economy.
Over and above the deployment of these new networks, service providers are pursuing new areas of growth in digital media and cinema. But the age-old question remains—how can the companies do this profitably, while at the same time increasing ARPU and building customer loyalty?
India is greatly impacted by the convergence trend that is rapidly reshaping the global telecommunication market. The Indian digital ecosystem is quickly evolving and new players are appearing every day, attracted by the huge growth potential and the opportunity of delivering new digital services through to a fast-growing installed base of internet and digital TV users.
Services in the digital home, such as computing, entertainment, information and communication, are increasingly inter-related. Meanwhile digital devices in the home, such as the television, cell phones and fixed-line phones are also increasingly inter-connected and inter-dependent:
- The cell phone is of paramount importance, as it is often the first digital screen for many Indians, particularly the younger generation, driving a large part of GDP growth and forecast to reach 1 billion customers by 2015.
- Penetration of the PC in the Indian home is still very low (3 percent), which, Kohli said, Bharti could help grow by leveraging their own customers base and providing them affordable plans through a segmented approach.
- TV also has low market penetration but it has the reach, quality, and features that Indian customers expect and demand.
- India is also seeing the emergence of new media formats and customer interfaces.
In other words, we are seeing convergence becoming a reality in India, and the boundaries between these technologies and services are blurring rapidly, said Kohli. This brings fresh challenges for Indian carriers in a market that plays by entirely new rules. First, customer segments will become more diverse, which, for carriers, means that the “one size fit all” approach will no longer work. Second, customer experience needs to be seamless across all of the four screens. Third, simplicity and discoverability will differentiate carriers, and therefore personalization and localization will be key. Fourth, capped flat rate models will become more relevant and pervasive, so granularity will be important. Finally, opt-ins and operator interoperability will become increasingly important to customers.
For Kohli, applying these new rules represent a unique opportunity for carriers to own and better control the customer relationship and provide new value added services. Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile operator in India, is transforming itself from a telecom brand to a lifestyle enabler through a four screen strategy: mobile communication, television, content accessed via the PC over broadband and digital cinema, the newest dimension to its product portfolio.