SWOT Analysis of Airtel In Detail

Strengths of Airtel

Advertising

Almost every brand tries to advertise in a way that can have a lasting impact on its audience. And Airtel is a company that has nailed it with its advertising and marketing strategies. Airtel released a TV commercial with AR Rahman, and the tune is still rooted in most of us even today. Since then, the brand has never failed to create a lasting impact with its ads, whether on TV or social media.

Customer Base

Airtel has around 352 million subscribers in India. Additionally, it has an international submarine cable system connecting India to Singapore. This company has also established a solid customer base in Srilanka, Bangladesh, and Africa.

Extensive infrastructure

Airtel has never shied away from taking significant steps to increase its customer base. Whether it is the partnership with Idea and Vodafone to build the Indus Towers or even the acquisition of regional telecom operators, Airtel always has focused on expanding its infrastructure across the country.

Vast List of Services

Although Airtel started out as a telecom service provider, its services are not limited to 2G, 3G, and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high-speed DSL broadband, IPTV, and Digital TV. This company’s latest offering is Airtel XStream, an OTT platform for you to watch various web series, movies, short films, and more.

Weakness of Airtel

These are a few areas which can be improved by Airtel:

Outsourcing Operations

We read earlier that Airtel outsources most of its operations to maintain a low cost. However, outsourcing to other companies also means that the company is at risk of being dependent on some third-party for its final output, which may not be in its control.

High Debt

This year, Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited reported a net debt of about 934 billion Indian rupees. A few of the causes of being under such a huge debt is their acquisitions have been turning out to be bad investments, high credit, and low margins.

Slow To Launch New Services

Yes, Airtel offers its customers more than just telecom services. However, there are gaps in the product range sold by the company. Although this company is launching new products, it is rarely before its competitors.

Poor Financial planning

Airtel has a lot more scope for proper planning. The current asset ratio and liquid asset ratios indicate that this company can use the cash more efficiently.

Opportunities for Airtel

To continue being the top telecom provider in India and neighboring countries, these are a few opportunities Airtel can tap on.

New product development

Since consumer behavior is constantly evolving, it opens doors to new markets too. Airtel can use this opportunity to build new revenue streams and consider launching \new product categories.

Untapped scope of the current market

Airtel currently provides 4G coverage. But this is not available in rural areas. Hence, the company can focus on developing infrastructure in such areas and provide better connectivity, achieve higher profits, and eventually increase its customers.

5G

5G and LTE is already available in most countries abroad but has started only recently in India. On 25 November 2021, Airtel conducted a 5G trial in the 700 MHz band in partnership with Nokia. With this move, we are confident that Airtel has already identified this opportunity and is spearheading 5G in India.

Threats to Airtel

Mentioned below are a few reasons that can decrease the market share for Airtel and eventually decrease the number of customers.

Jio 5G

Airtel has just ventured into this service, and Jio has been two steps ahead. This network service provider is offering faster network services and better 5G Technology. Recently, the audience has been leaning more towards Jio Fibre, owing to its low pricing and the amazing internet speed with no fluctuations.

Government Regulatory Framework

Due to change in government policies in different countries and auctioning of the spectrum, Airtel can be exposed to liability claims.

Competition

Airtel is not the only internet and telecom service provider in the market. Today, the competition has become so fierce that every provider has to constantly innovate to increase and retail its customer base. A few years ago, Reliance Jio had started offering free data and calling. This led to a huge disruption in the telecom sector, forcing other companies to either reduce their prices or lose their customers.

MNP(Mobile Number Portability)

MNP allows you to change your service provider while keeping the same mobile number. Since there are other service providers offering much more affordable data plans as compared to Airtel prepaid plans, it is at a huge risk of losing its customers, switching for cheaper service alternatives.

By now, we hope you have a better understanding of where Airtel stands, how it can improve, and its risks. Let’s summarize these points below:

Key Takeaways

This SWOT analysis has helped us understand how Airtel broadband can still hold its position of being amongst the top three telecom service providers in the country. Airtel has been in the market for more than two decades now and has a loyal customer base, a strong brand recall, and a focus to evolve constantly.

These factors will definitely help the brand sail through the different obstacles and continue being the top choice for its customers. That being said, it should also continue working on improving its threats to ensure Airtel’s market share does not drop.

Conclusion

Airtel has been one of the few companies that have listened to what its customers want and successfully delivered it. Other companies can learn from Airtel’s business and marketing strategies to grow in this ever-evolving market. We hope that this Airtel SWOT analysis helped you get valuable insights about this market leader. If you are interested in similar articles, please keep visiting Selectra.