Airtel Business bets big on machine-to-machine communication solutions, smart city

NEW DELHI: Airtel Business, the enterprise services arm of Bharti Airtel, is focusing on providing machine-to-machine (M2M) communication solutions and government specific digital services as it seeks to transform from a telecom infrastructure provider to more of a services provider.

Under new director of Airtel Business Manish Prakash, who joined 13 months ago from Accenture, the unit is moving away from being a traditional telecom infrastructure provider to services and solutions provider in the country.

“Telecom and IT are converging in managed services or digital, which sit upon three pillars – enterprise mobility, collaboration solution cloud and managed services – that are ultimately driving the new business model. All three come under a standalone vertical, Digital Enterprise,” Prakash told ET, adding that being a telecom player with network at its core, Airtel Business has an inherent advantage in this space.

While its other vertical targets services for the government, Prakash said that enterprise mobility is the faster growing of the two.

Airtel’s enterprise business competes with Vodafone Business Services, Reliance Communications, the Tatas and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), among others, in a growing segment.

Before Prakash’s appointment, Airtel Business focused on providing traditional infrastructure services such as connectivity to enterprises and SIM-based mobility.

Airtel Business reported revenue of Rs 1,617.7 crore in the quarter to December 2014, contributing 10% to Airtel’s overall revenue.

Prakash said that Airtel Business is in talks with two state governments to help them design smart cities.

Under the government segment, Airtel already offers the mGovernance solution along with an entire set of custom-made applications, featuring video surveillance, city traffic systems, public distribution mobile app, property tax collection and financial inclusion solutions.

The company is also planning investments in infrastructure to take part in the Centre’s Digital India and Smart Cities initiatives and connect beyond metro or top cities in the country.

Airtel is currently also working with three electricity boards for smart metering. In addition, it is talking to IT companies to provide its GPS-based tracking solution, TrackMATE, for women’s safety. It has recently collaborated with Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) and deployed satellite-based vehicle tracking system and fuel monitoring system, helping them save more Rs 20 lakh in fuel cost every month.

“We are also trying to get into device management segment and machine-to-machine (M2M) services, which will give us further acceleration,” said Prakash.

According to him, Airtel, being a pan-India telecom service provider with a bouquet of solutions comprising of 3G, 4G, NLD and Internet, among others, is aiming to provide M2M solutions for different m-governance and corporate applications.

The global IoT (Internet of Things) and M2M communications market is estimated to grow from $255.87 billion in 2014 to $947.29 billion in 2019, as per market research firm MarketsandMarkets.