Future outlook for Airtel will depend on following aspects:

1)      Ability to sustain the fierce competitive environment with entry of new players.

2)      Success on 3G services front.

3)      Overseas expansion

4)      Assistance in the form of diversification into new businesses under the Bharti Group.

India is set to witness entry of new players in the mobile services market. Names include Datacom having the backing of Videocon and HFCL Group, Loop Telecom backed by Essars, Unitech’s telecom arm, Swan Telecom and Shyam which aspires to extend its foot print across the nation. All these are considered to usher in a fierce competitive environment. Rural segment is likely to be the focus of most of these players to build subscriber base.

Bharti Airtel should do well to sustain this challenge as it has on its disposal the incumbent operator advantage. The company is well positioned to expand its network in the remote areas of the country. Also the fact that while new entrants will only have start-up spectrum of 4.4MHz for use, Bharti will benefit from having more spectrum in most of the circles.

Bharti through its association with Singtel is also on the positive side as far as experience in offering 3G services goes. IT is expected to bid for pan-India 3G licence and particularly for metro circles where it is faced with the challenge of keeping a check on dwindling ARPUs.

Bharti offlate is aggressively eying acquisitions in the overseas market with a special focus on emerging markets. Few months back it was in highlight for its proposed merger with South African MTN which ultimately turned to be futile. But the company has repeatedly suggested that it is on top gears to hunt for an acquisition in the global telecom sector.

Bharti Airtel is also diversifying into new businesses now. IPTV and DTH are considered to be two services which may again result in reasonable subscriber addition to the company as well as help it to increase ARPU from current subscribers.

More importantly its tie-up with Wal-Mart is widely perceived to take Bharti Enterprises to the next level of Corporate Growth and consolidate its position not only in the Indian business environment bur also on a global map.