See major growth opportunities in rural India: Vodafone

Excerpts from India Business Hour on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » RELATED NEWS Videocon, STel join 3G race; Uninor keeps at bay India 3G airwave race gathers pace, bids in April Bharti application store clocks 2.5 mn downloads Nifty BSE | NSE 29/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

Vodafone is among the telcos which have bid for spectrum for both 3G and broadband wireless access. The company expects the limited supply of 3G spectrum to lead to an interesting bidding war.

Confirming the placing of bids for 3G spectrum, Martin Pieters, MD and CEO, Vodafone, said the telecom major will be an active part of the 3G bidding process.

He sees significant growth opportunities in India, especially the rural market. "We will obtain licence in untouched areas."

Despite current tariffs being at rock-bottom levels, Pieters stated that the strong volumes should make up for the lower tariffs. "The tariff war in India is sustainable for bigger players."

Vodafone has invested more than USD 1 billion in infrastructure and is increasing its market share every month, he added.

Here is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with Martin Pieters on CNBC-TV18. Also see the accompanying video.

Q: Will the 3G auctions be completed as per the government's schedule?

A: We put in an application because we are interested in it. I think India has been waiting a long time for 3G. It is good news for the Indian customers. All the operators are in need of spectrum. So, anyhow bringing new spectrum to the market is good news. This is of course high speed spectrum, so the customer's surfing experience especially for accessing value-added services and the internet will be so much better on the 3G network than it is today.

Q: Since there are only three licenses available in the first instance, there are expectations that the bidding could be a little higher. Since liquidity and banking is also available at this point in time that could be one of the reasons why many people are saying that the pricing or the bids, when they come, will be a little higher. Do you share that view going forward on this?

A: It is clear that in an auction if there is less supply then probably the prices will be higher. But this is pure speculation as to what will happen in this auction. There are 23 circles and 22 portions of 3G spectrum are up for sale and its unknown as to who is going to bid exactly. Where and what these prices are going to do? That's the nice thing about the auction is that you never know until its done.