New Delhi: Airtel Sunil Mittal secured ‘strategic funding’ $ 1 billion from Google because American technology giants expanded the spread of its investment in India outside the $ 4.5 billion agreement (RS 33,737 Crore) which was signed with Jio Reliance Ambesh in July 2020.
Agreement With Airtel will be funded from the Google $ 10 billion digitalization fund and see the company invested $ 700 million for a 1.2% share in the airtel at a price of Rs 734 per share (it was closed on RS 717 Day in the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday).
The remaining $ 300 million will be spent in fields such as affordable smartphones development, and accelerate digital inclusion, including cases of network domain use for 5G and cloud growth.
Toi is the first to report Google’s plan to make financial investments to the airtel in his edition dated August 28 last year.
While investment into the JIO platform has come to the assessment of $ 58.1 billion (RS 4.36 Lakh Crore) for Ambani companies, airtel funding comes to assessment of $ 54.7 billion (RS 4.1 Lakh Crore).
Airtel and Mittal will try to drive partnerships with Google to get valuable insights around the development of affordable smartphones – something that has helped Jio in the creation of the next Jiophone – besides strengthening their robbery into 5G.
Airtel said Google partnerships with the Jio platform, where he also got a board position, not contrary to any agreement.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chair of Bharti Airtel, said the company had a vision to grow Indian digital dividends through innovative products.
“With network in the future, digital platforms, distribution ecosystems and last mile payments, we hope to work with Google to increase the depth and extent of Indian digital ecosystems,” he said.
Sundar Pichai, Google CEO and Alphabet, said the company has a “shared vision” to expand connectivity and ensure fair access to the internet for more Indians.
“Our commercial and equity investment in Airtel is a continuation of our Google for Indian digitization funds to increase access to smartphones, increasing connectivity to support new business models and help companies in their digital transformation trips,” Pichai said.
Under the larger ‘strategic goals’ of the partnership, the two companies will look for co-creature special network networks for India for 5G and other standards with the latest implementation.
Airtel has used a network & software platform defined by 5G-ready to evolve Google and plan to explore the increase in the deployment of Google network virtualization solutions to provide superior network experience to its customers.
The company will also focus on forming and fostering cloud ecosystems in India to accelerate their digital transformation trips.
Airtel serves more than one million small and medium enterprises with business connectivity offers, and this partnership tends to help speed digital adoption.
Prashant Singhal, telecommunications leader at Ernst & Young India, said that in addition to playing in India, the partnership also has the potential to influence airtel operations positively throughout Africa.
“There will be a multiplier effect.
We feel that Google’s focus wants in India is a big belief booster for the local industry, and also for Airtel.
Partnerships will help in getting 5G using cases faster on the market, regardless of the development of affordable devices and cloud infrastructure .
“Asked if Airtel will continue to offer cloud services from other operators such as AWS and Oracle, CEO of Airtel Gopal Vittal said Google partnership is not exclusive in nature:” We will continue to work with many partners.
there is no exclusivity for one of the partners.
“He said Airtel will continue to invest in network expansion and other business areas, such as Home Broadband, Data Center and 5G networks.
“We invest around $ 2.5 billion per year, and this will continue.”