Airtel to invest Rs 2000 crore on 'Project Next'

India's largest telecom opeartor Bharti Airtel on Monday launched 'Project Next' a digital innovation program aimed at transforming customer experience across all its services and touch points.

The company also said that it will invest Rs. 2000 crore over the next three years under this project.

"Under Project Next, Airtel will revamp its stores, launch mobile handset protection schemes, allow transfer of unused mobile data to next month for postpaid users and pooling of postpaid plan within a family," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (South Asia) Gopal Vittal .

The company said that it will launch several digital innovations to "step change the simplicity and interactivity" of its customer experience."

On the rollout of VoLTE (Voice over LTE), Vittal said it is in the works and the company is conducting trials in five cities. He added that the company will be "able to take VoLTE" everywhere in the country in later part of the year.

Meanwhile the company also announced that now its customers can use their unused data balance to the next billing cycle ensuring zero data wastage.

Airtel said, "All Airtel Postpaid customers will now be able to carry forward their unused monthly data quota to the next billing cycle, this new- to- the world innovation will ensure zero data wasteage for customers and brings unmatched value to the Airtel postpaid proposition. Customers can easily track their usage and data carried forward on MyAirtel app."

To transform its in-store experience, Airtel spent almost 2450 hours observing customers and mapping traffic flows within its stores. Based on these insights, the company redesigning over 2500 stores across India.

The Next-Gen Airtel Stores have been conceptualized by the UK based 8 Inc. The first two Next-Gen Airtel stores are LIVE in Gurgaon. The new stores are open and minimalistic by design, and come wrapped in digital technologies to make the customer experience highly interactive through the concept of Share, Create, Experience.