India’s largest and world’s 3rd largest wireless telecom operator, Bharti Airtel is restructuring its telecom business into nine vertical businesses each under a separate head.
This is in departure to its existing structure where the businesses are under 3 heads – Wireless Mobile Services, Telemedia Services (DTH, Broadband, IPTV, Fixed Line) and Enterprise services (undersea cable, NLD/ILD).
The prime motive for this move could be that with the reduction in ARPU and expectation of slowdown in growth of wireless services, the company needed to shift its focus to other business areas other than its core business of voice telephony.
The new business verticals could be mobile commerce, entertainment (DTH), media, internet, enterprise services and small & medium businesses.
The move may also serve the purpose of retaining talent pool within the company as it would create separate profit centers for different businesses, with each charting its own strategies for growth.
It may also be possible that once different businesses achieve targeted scales, they may be listed separately to achieve further scale. source