Annual Report
2015-16

A New Generation’s
Take on Life

6 Lakh+ Over 6 Lakh customers are already part of the ‘myPlan’ family

Brand Airtel on the go

Yes, that’s the prism through which we look at the transformative power of communications. In a country with a significant youth bulge (over 65% of the population is 35 or under, and half the country’s population is under 25 years of age) our strategy is to continue to innovate for New India; and find the courage to chase seemingly ‘off-the-wall’ ideas. We believe that’s the fastest lane through which we can get closer to aspirations, and create an experiential world, our customers desire and deserve to live in.

myPlan Family
The first ever family share plan by an Indian telecom operator with sharing starting at ` 99 only. The entire family can share data, voice and SMSes and roaming benefits. This industry first initiative gifts a unique power of flexibility to the customer.

Growing the Wynk Family
Launched in 2014, Wynk Music today is one of the most popular music apps with over 10 Mn songs played daily. On an average, active users spend 5.25 hours every month on the app, ensuring high product quality in the music and entertainment space.

To meet the growing demand for quality content by smartphone users on the go, the Wynk product portfolio was expanded with the launch of Wynk Movies and Wynk Games in 2015. Wynk Movies is a marketplace for movies in partnership with five content providers. It is an impressive repository of some of the latest and biggest blockbusters in Hindi, English and regional Indian languages.

We expanded our content portfolio with the launch of ‘Wynk Games’, offering a library of over 2,000 global and local games from across genres. Wynk Games, bundled with Airtel data packs, aims to enhance consumption of this data category.

The carrier-agnostic and multi-device compatible applications enable customers to stream, download and buy content at reasonable prices. For our content partners, these have become ideal platforms to reach audiences and monetise their services, while simultaneously augmenting data consumption, keeping us ahead of the curve.

Currently, Wynk services are available only in the Indian sub-continent. Going forward, we plan to expand our services to international markets through strategic partnerships to establish leadership in emerging markets.

Pre on Post
Pre on post is another industry first. A person who has a corporate account can simply do a prepaid data recharge on the corporate number. Pre on post is very simple; one can recharge anywhere like a prepaid number with no additional documentation required. Over 100,000 customers have endorsed this refreshing idea.

4G Rollout
We partnered with Flipkart and Samsung to bundle 4G SIMs in the 4G handset boxes, an industry first. Through these alliances, we were able to cover SIM deliveries to roughly 70% of the 4G smartphone buyers in the country. This resulted in 20-25% of the bundled SIMs getting activated, despite going to non-Airtel customers and also helped to accelerate the 4G adoption process.

Transforming Retail Customer Experience
Over the last few years, the Airtel Retail Stores have established a unique relationship with our customers. Our stores are fast becoming the face of Airtel for our retail customers. Currently, we have approximately 3,000 stores, spanning 650 cities with approximately 8,000 Customer Relationship Officers deployed to serve our customers. These stores serve our postpaid and prepaid customers, and have played an instrumental role in postpaid myPlan penetration.

~3,000 Airtel stores spread across 650 cities
8,000 Customer Relationship Officers

Going forward, we are implementing world-class tools such as net promoter scores, which will provide us better insights about customer experience. These insights, along with continuous high-impact training across behaviour, process and products, will better equip our store staff in delighting our customers.

Best-in-Class DTH Services
We are committed to provide installation within four hours and complaint resolution within six hours, in line with our motto of being the fastest to install and fastest to resolve in the industry. In FY 2015-16, 95% of our installation was completed within four hours and 90% of our customer complaints were resolved within six hours. Additionally, we have launched express service for our customers wherein new connections will be installed within two hours in top 26 cities to further enhance customer on-boarding experience.

We constantly work on advancing our technology to enable our customers have a best-in-class and seamless TV viewing experience. We offer customised solutions such as multi-lingual electronic programme guide and universal remote in the market, thereby simplifying TV viewing for our customers. We are also working on a Hybrid STB, combining internet with TV, with which our customers will be able to access OTT content through apps on TV.

12 Mn+ Customer base achieved by Airtel Digital TV within eight years of inception
15 Mn+ Users registered in 2015-16

Make in India Set-top Box
We have launched our indigenously manufactured set-top boxes. The Made in India set-top boxes are available in HD to begin with and soon all Airtel Digital TVs set-top boxes will be manufactured in India. We are inspired to participate in the Government’s Make in India initiative, contributing to its growing proliferation across sectors. The launch also provides the much needed impetus to build an ecosystem that will drive indigenous manufacturing of DTH set-top boxes, supported by domestic production capabilities and technical expertise.

Differentiated Banking Experience
Customers enjoyed the on-the-go payments experience through our prepaid wallet offering Airtel Money. This service was delivered through the Airtel Money app and Airtel Money physical touch points.

With an aim to extend hassle-free payments experience to customers, Airtel Money app was completely redesigned. Our focus was on enabling easy registrations, fast cash load and seamless experience for customers.

5 Mn+ App registrations in 2015-16

Payments Bank License

During 2015-16, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted the Payments Bank license to Airtel Payments Bank Limited with a time frame of 18 months to operationalise the bank. This move will play a pivotal role in bringing millions of unbanked Indians into the fold of formal banking.

Airtel Payments Bank Limited also launched a domestic remittance service in January 2016. This service is offered through Airtel Payments Bank Limited money points where customers can walk in and transfer money to any bank account across the country. Airtel Payments Bank Limited is the first entity among the 11 licensee holders to be granted the final banking license; and is on track to become the first payments bank in the country, enabling inclusive growth.

Strengthening Airtel Business

Airtel Talk
Our global Voice over IP (VoIP) calling and messaging application ‘Airtel Talk’ has grown significantly and now has presence in more than 100 countries with 3.5 Mn+ global subscribers. In certain markets, the app is among the top five apps in the app store to make international calls.

Through Airtel Talk, we have entered into unique partnerships (first of its kind) in the Over The Top (OTT) applications space. These partnerships have enabled us to launch Airtel Talk in markets like Singapore, wherein the local operator is using the app to generate more international minutes towards the Indian subcontinent. Partnerships have also enabled us to create the best cost structure in multiple countries, providing affordable solution for ISD calling. It works as an alternative to the expensive ISD voiceonly calls, low quality messenger, calling cards, among others.

The app is also the first in the industry to have launched features like Share Credit with Friends and Call Me Free. Both these features have been designed to simplify user journey and iron out the challenges faced by our subscribers.

Global DIA
We have created an innovative solution to simplify our carrier partners’ internet requirements in multiple countries. Earlier, partners had to interact with multiple providers, multiple billings and multiple SLAs when procuring local internet for their customers in different countries. Now, our ‘Global DIA’ product gives a single window solution to our partners in 40+ countries, and has the following benefits:

Content Distribution Service
We created an innovative solution for global content players, cloud service providers and e-commerce players. This was an end-to-end managed services solution comprising of data centres, international network and domestic content distribution services. This helped localise the content in India thereby significantly improving the consumer experience and lower cost of operations. Riding on the global sentiment to capitalise on the India growth, this initiative helped us create this solution with most of the large global players in this space.

Satellite Business
We are bridging the gaps in our worldwide fibre network coverage through our satellite services that fully complement our fibre infrastructure for emerging markets. Airtel Business continues to provide a one-stop network solution to customers, leveraging its efficient network capability. The satellite service provider industry is slowly progressing from conventional geo-stationary satellites to medium and low orbit satellites. The advantage is ‘high throughput’ and ‘low latency’ to the global network. Airtel Business is among the very first adaptors and promoters of this technology. It has partnered with medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite providers to delight its customers with the affordable and efficient network solution on this platform.

Airtel Business elevated connectivity to the next level by providing high bandwidth network connectivity to various MNOs / telecom operators through its satellite network platform that uses the stable GEO and revolutionary MEO satellite system. It created a truly differentiated experience for customers, who received fibre comparable speeds on satellite network (4x faster than GEO satellites) at affordable prices in areas with minimal hopes of high-speed and high-capacity connectivity in the absence of fibre cable. Airtel Business is also providing satellite services to media houses, broadcasters, enterprises and governments overseas.