There are two essential reasons why the horizon of telecom has broadened and widened.  One is of course, as we the journey of digital transformation is upbeat, a lot of services and offerings will use the digital route, hence telecom.  We are already witness to so many disruptions where the legacy business models have got transformed into digital.  For instance, brick and mortar retail is now transforming into e-commerce and so on.  As we march towards a connected and smart society, telecom will become the enabling backbone and will shape the business models.

The other reason why telecom can be leveraged by several sectors is because of its consumer facing nature.  Telecom operators have subscribers in millions, whom they have access to 24×7 and with advancements in analytics, they know a lot about these consumers.  This is where they can bring in a lot of value to sectors like FMCG, BFSI and many more. As the opportunity shrinks and becomes concise, it is paramount for businesses to be precise in their approach and reaching them.

Patanjali has again proved its business acumen by collaborating with BSNL which creates a lot many synergies than one could think of. Such a move should have ideally come from the ‘ahead of curve’ brands like Unilever or P&G along with Jio or airtel.  But, this trend setting collaboration has given the entire industry to reason and think how the future collaborations would shape up.

While the collaboration gives Patanjali access to wide customer interfaces that BSNL has across the country, in return, BSNL leverages from strong financials and business run rate Patanjali is riding on. It is time for other operators to look for similar cross sector opportunities where the collaboration would mean adding value to the entire value chain.  For instance, post paid users of airtel or Vodafone paying more than a certain monthly bill, getting airmiles on Jet Airways or Vistara.  Its time for telecom operators to earn every cent of opportunity by forging cross sector alliances and collaborations and BSNL-Patanjali has shown the light at the end of the tunnel.