The company?s strategy is to front-end investments in circles/cities the company feels have potential to grow materially. Following the initial investments, any incremental spending would only be done after they see traction in the form of both increase in subscribers and usage. Idea is on path to spending `75 bn in FY2016, a majority of which is for rolling out their 4G network.
For example, voice has become stagnant/declined in most markets across the globe, however in India voice is still growing at a substantial pace. Similarly, data volumes will follow their own unique path and hence it would not be fruitful to compare the Indian data market evolution with the evolution of any other geography.
The company believes that the reserve prices recommended by TRAI for the 700 MHz bands are too steep for making a viable business case. Hence, they do not see much action on the auctions for this band unless there is a steep reduction in the reserve prices. Moreover, operators have created huge data capacity in the past few quarters and would wait for the same to be utilized before going for a fresh set of investments.
