Sunil Mittal-owned telco giant Bharti Airtel has told in a statement that it has launched its network connectivity in the northernmost and high-altitude areas of India including Galwan and Daulat Beg Oldie. 

Infrastructure 

Airtel has claimed the installation of 17 mobile network towers across Kargil, Siachen, Galwan, Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), and the Changthang regions. This would also facilitate network connectivity across the remote villages in the periphery of these areas.

Milestone 

Airtel has been able to achieve this milestone with the help of Leh Signalers establishing the milestone of being India’s only private telco to provide network connectivity at an altitude of 16700 ft above the sea level.

Strategic Location 

Galwan and Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) being underserved but high-priority areas, are both located in the Ladakh region on the Indo-China border at the northeastern corner of the Karakoram Range. It puts Airtel strategically at the forefront and receiving end to ensure the first movers' advantage in terms of gaining users in these remote regions of Galwan & Daulat Beg Oldie. 

First Movers Advantage 

As Airtel is India's first private telco to expand its network footprint in remote regions it would be easy for it to lure users to fill in its offer. Further, the telco would also be able to provide its other services and offerings in these regions enabling it to add more users and more revenue in return. This also gives Airtel an edge over other telcos namely Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea in the business aspect and intractability of the company, that it has successfully established a proper infrastructure to ensure network connectivity. 

Challenges Ahead 

While Airtel has secured a strategic benefit out of its expansion plans, it brings forth plenty of challenges too that need to be addressed, or else the consumers won’t take long to ditch the telco. The major challenges in the region both telecom and Geographical include Ensuring a stable connection owing to terranic and weather difficulties. 

This would necessitate Airtel to acquire and ensure technological upgrades in the region like satellite links or other advanced technologies to ensure a stable network connection in the region. Other challenges concern national security as the location shares its borders with China. 

India’s Telecom Space

As Airtel gains the lead in ensuring network connectivity in the remote regions of Galwan and Daulat Beg Oldie, it shadows an obvious pressure upon the PSU BSNL as well as private telcos like Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea making the space more interesting and competitive. This might potentially lead to the ushering of innovations and also offers to lure customers to ramp up the scene. 

Net Neutrality 

It is also a very big achievement for us as a nation in ensuring Net Neutrality to our citizens enabling them to bridge the internet divide and information divide existing among the rural, remote areas, and urban areas. It is a renewed promise of accessibility and connectivity of the nation to its people irrespective of terrain and weather.