Management cautiously confirms that the path for government intervention on the debilitating AGR dues is now clearer from a judicial standpoint.

“Ques - “our understanding, at least as per media reports is that the Supreme Court did observe that if you do seek any relief from the government, then they won't come in the way.”

Ans - “Given the sensitivities around the court proceedings, I'm not allowed to comment on what was said. But what media has reported is a factual reporting of what happened in the court. There are, of course, transcripts and recordings available of the court proceeding. So I believe what media has reported is a correct reflection of what happened in the court. As far as the government relief is concerned, we are engaged with the government. Whether or what the government will do, I cannot comment on behalf of the government. But definitely, post the judgment, we continue with our engagement with the government to find a solution to the AGR matter.

“Yes, our view is that the government can do. And in fact, just to put things in perspective, even when the reforms package was announced in 2021, there was some PIL (Public Interest Litigation), which was filed in the Supreme Court. And that time the Supreme Court in their final order, they had stated to the effect that this is a policy matter, which is within the purview of the government, and they would not interfere in it.”

— Akshaya Moondra, CEO

Management explicitly links the two most critical variables for the company's future: debt funding and AGR resolution. Despite the massive equity infusion and credit rating upgrades, the CEO confirms that banks remain hesitant. This reveals that the equity raise was a necessary but not sufficient condition for securing debt.

“What the rating agency has done is somewhat different. One is that after the conversion, we have started reengaging with the banks. There are some activities which we have to finish, which are currently in progress. We will get to again a point of discussion with the banks somewhere in this month on some of the prerequisites in terms of those actions and activities are completed.”

“Generally, our past discussions with the banks showed that they needed some more clarity on AGR. Conversion, of course, has been a big step forward. So, I would say that the banks would want some clarity on the AGR dues. While that is happening, it is not preventing the discussions to go forward. Discussions are still continuing.”

— Akshaya Moondra, CEO

Management provides concrete, specific examples of how it is offsetting the natural increase in operating costs from network expansion.

“Some of these [cost cutting measures], I can qualitatively tell you is that negotiation of rentals has been done over the year where they were very high. Biggest saving is coming from energy cost optimization. A lot of initiatives have been taken that we can operate on a lesser energy cost. Then there have been activities and initiatives like we have in-sourced fiber management and also managed services for some of the radio networks that we had.”

“And I can tell you, particularly on fiber, it was a major, major activity... The end result has been good on both directions. Firstly, we have actually been able to reduce cost. But more importantly, the incidents that we used to have when the fiber was being managed through outsourcing was quite bad, and we've been able to reduce what we call as P1 incidents... by 75%. And the last area to be highlighted is that IT cost, we were continuing with many legacy contracts. We have revisited them.”

— Akshaya Moondra, CEO

“Management is explicitly framing its aggressive unlimited data plans as a short-term, tactical "intervention" rather than a long-term pricing strategy.”

“Nonstop Hero is a part of our strategy. As you are aware that we had been losing a number of subscribers over a fairly long period of time because we had not made investments. As we have made investments, our offering has become very competitive. To leverage that, we have created a lot of capacity... we need to have attractive propositions for our customers so as to get them back be able to experience our network, which they've not experienced for a long period of time.”

“And I'm sure that once they experience that with some incentives for getting them back to network, they will then continue to stay. So right now... these are interventions and initiatives meant to get our subscriber base moving in the right direction. And once we make some progress, ultimately, we would be having pricing, which is more in line with the market.”

— Akshaya Moondra, CEO