Airtel exploring offering CPAAS platform in overseas markets

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Bharti Airtel, India's second largest telco, is exploring offering its communication as a service (CPaaS) platform to telcos outside of India, in a bid to tap into the strong revenue potential of the growing business. Over the past few years, the telco has been building its own suite of CPaaS products and looks to disrupt sectors like banking, ecommerce, travel, and shopping in India, eyeing a share of the rapidly growing market. “Size of the prize on CPaaS is huge.

Globally it is a $14-billion market with an impressive outlook over the next few years. Airtel would be open to bring the CPaaS platform to other telcos in their respective country,” Abhishek Biswal, head – digital products & services, Airtel Business, told ET. For telcos, CPaaS is a margin efficient business since they own the telecom infrastructure, analysts said.

Apart from SMS and voice, platforms like WhatsApp which lend a layer of interactivity are driving growth in the segment, industry executives added.“Our decision to sell directly to the enterprise has also helped accelerate the business significantly,” Biswal said. While Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio did not respond to ET queries on the matter, both have presence in the segment through messaging platforms and ad-tech products as well. The CPaaS market in India itself is rapidly growing and is already estimated to be around Rs 20,000 crore currently and has players like Tanla Platforms, Tata Communications, and Route Mobile, in addition to the three private telcos.