Summary

The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the criticality of the telecom sector for economies. A massive shift to work-from-home over the past 18 months has meant materially higher need for video-conferencing and online business communication. Over-the-top streaming services have also seen, well, over-the-top uptake.

The upshot? A humongous spike in demand for bandwidth and connectivity.

Telcos have been up to the task, though, having invested massively in infrastructure. This has helped them facilitate the transformational transition to virtual work.

Over fiscals 2017 to 2019, the telecom sector has also seen consolidation amid intense competition. And then towards the end of calendar 2019, a big blow landed when the government demanded adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues of over Rs 1.2 lakh crore.

The sector has been in repair mode since, revising tariffs selectively to improve the average revenue per user (ARPU). The jury is out on whether this is enough to drive industry growth and returns.

While the deadline to clear AGR dues has thankfully been extended, a material increase in cash flows has become imperative for dialling up return on capital and rolling out fifth generation, or 5G, mobile services.

Will that mean another round of tariff hikes? How ready are telcos to roll out 5G services?

CRISIL's experts will try to address these and other questions at the webinar. Their presentation will cover:

• Outlook on data consumption, subscriber base and ARPU
  
• The role of telecom in the post-pandemic world
• Revenue and profitability trends
• The impact of AGR on the industry
• The credit outlook on the sector
• India's 5G-readiness
  

This will be followed by a panel discussion among industry experts, and a Q&A session.