iWorld
Interactivity crucial to advanced TV services: Parks study
MUMBAI: Consumers interested in interactive services such as advertising, gaming, and voting on game shows, who total 27 per cent of all US households, represent a lucrative early market for IPTV services and applications, according to Parks Associates’ ‘IP Video Services: Analysis and Forecast.’
This segment, identified in Parks Associates’ multinational study ‘Global Digital Living,’ is highly receptive to advanced TV services. Service providers, particularly telecom operators, could boost current revenues on their quad-play service packages, which include voice, data, video and wireless, by 33 per cent by garnishing the bundle with services such as video-on-demand, as well as home monitoring, gaming and wireless broadband. This percentage increase would add $1.81 billion in revenues over the basic quad-play package.
The ‘Global Digital Living’ project is a study of worldwide consumer technology trends and surveyed Internet households in thirteen nations: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, India, China, South Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, states an official release.
“The market for interactive services is very promising in the U.S.,” said Deepa Iyer, a research analyst at Parks Associates. “Telecom operators have a great opportunity to create new revenue streams by developing and deploying services catered toward this specific market.”
As they increase their service offerings, telecom operators could also draw revenue from targeted advertising, according to ‘IP Video Services: Analysis and Forecast.’ The IP network allows real-time customer measurement, so telecom operators can build targeted advertising pieces into their bundle of services and increase customer ARPU. To realize these new possibilities, telecom operators will have to form strong partnerships with network, software, and other solutions providers to ensure the proper service infrastructure.
“It is all about experience in this market,” Iyer says. “If telecom operators want to venture into the video market, they have to do away with their ‘traditional fixed-line provider’ image and offer services that really excite consumers. It is through this strategy that telecom operators can build strong customer loyalty.”
‘IP Video Services: Analysis and Forecasts’ provides an analysis of the drivers, inhibitors, and opportunities for IPTV services. It provides overviews of the major players along the IPTV value chain and delivers a country-by-country analysis of the consumer demand for advanced TV services.
Parks Associates is a market research and consulting firm focused on all product and service segments that are ‘digital’ or provide connectivity within the home. The company’s expertise includes home networks, digital entertainment, consumer electronics, broadband and Internet services, and home systems, the release adds.
iWorld
Akhil Gupta retires as Bharti Enterprises vice chairman after three decades
The man who outsourced Airtel’s network and built Indus Towers leaves behind a telecom industry transformed
NEW DELHI: He was not the most visible face of Bharti. He was, by most accounts, the most consequential one. Akhil Gupta, known within the group simply as AKG, has retired as vice chairman of Bharti Enterprises with effect from March 31st, 2026, closing a chapter that stretched across more than three decades and reshaped Indian telecoms in ways still felt today.
Gupta was there at the beginning, part of the core leadership team that steered Bharti Airtel from a scrappy domestic operator into one of the world’s largest telecom and digital services companies. But it is two decisions in particular that cement his legacy. The first was persuading the industry that a telecom company need not own its own network. His outsourcing partnerships with IBM and Ericsson, considered eccentric at the time, stripped out capital costs and sharpened Airtel’s competitive edge. The model was subsequently copied across the global industry. The second was the creation of Indus Towers, now one of the largest tower companies in the world.
Both initiatives were studied as case material at Harvard Business School, where Gupta himself had studied. A chartered accountant by training and a dealmaker by instinct, he accumulated industry accolades across his career without ever particularly courting the limelight.
Bharti Enterprises, announcing the retirement on LinkedIn, credited Gupta with building the foundation of the group’s success and driving innovation, partnerships and long-term value creation.
The tributes are deserved. Gupta did not just help build Airtel. In many respects, he helped invent the playbook that modern telecoms runs on.
