**Airtel’s Focus on Data Centers Over GPU-as-a-Service**
Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Airtel, announced during the third-quarter earnings call that the company will not pursue GPU-as-a-service in the near future. Instead, Airtel plans to concentrate on expanding its data centers. Vittal explained that the decision to pause GPU-as-a-service offerings is due to the rapidly changing landscape, including the costs and efficiency of chips, as well as the complexities involved in managing workloads effectively.
“We’ve conducted several workshops to gain a deeper understanding of this area and have concluded that we will not be an early mover in GPU-as-a-service. However, our focus remains on AI data centers and expanding our data center business,” he stated. Airtel’s data center operations are managed under Nxtra Data Ltd, a prominent player in the Indian market.
GPU-as-a-service allows users to access GPUs on demand for various workloads, including machine learning, deep learning, gaming, video editing, and high-performance computing. This service can be more cost-effective than purchasing and maintaining individual GPUs. Competitors like Jio Platforms, Tata Communications, E2E Networks, Ctrls Datacenters, and Yotta Data Services are already offering similar services.
In addition, Vittal mentioned that Airtel is prepared to launch its fixed wireless access (FWA) service using standalone technology across the country when necessary. “We have fully tested the standalone solution for FWA and are ready to launch it at any time,” he said. Over the last two quarters, Airtel has enhanced its FWA availability, expanding coverage to over 2,000 cities and adding approximately 1.9 million fiber-to-the-home connections each quarter, bringing the total to 35 million. Competitor Reliance Jio is also actively promoting its FWA service.
With a 5G user base of 120 million, Vittal indicated that future capital expenditures will focus on 5G, home services, and broadband.