Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited

File:Airtel bangla logo.svg
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	7 July 1995 (1995-07-07)
Founder	Sunil Bharti Mittal
Headquarters	New Delhi, India
Area served	South Asian & African countries and the Channel Islands
Key people	Sunil Bharti Mittal (Chairman) and (MD)
Products	Wireless Telephone Internet Satellite television
Revenue	₹35,699.27 crore (US$4.3 billion) (2009)
Operating income	₹14,589.33 crore (US$1.7 billion) (2009)
Net income	₹9,426.16 crore (US$1.1 billion) (2009)
Total assets	US$ 11.853 billion (2009)
Number of employees	30,000 (2010)
Parent	Bharti Enterprises (63.45%) SingTel (32.15%) Vodafone (4.4%)
Website	Airtel.com

Bharti Airtel Limited, usually referred to simply as "airtel", is a Indian telecommunications company that operates in 19 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. It operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3G services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world with over 200 million subscribers as of October 2010. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with over 143 million subscribers as of September 30, 2010. Airtel is the 3rd largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. It has a 29.00% market share of the GSM mobile service in India.

Airtel also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its telecom services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the first Indian telecom service provider to achieve this Cisco Gold Certification. To earn Gold Certification, Bharti Airtel had to meet rigorous standards for networking competency, service, support and customer satisfaction set forth by Cisco. The company also provides land-line telephone services and broadband Internet access (DSL) in over 96 cities in India. It also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.

It is known for being the first mobile phone company in the world to outsource everything except marketing and sales and finance. Its network (base stations, microwave links, etc.) is maintained by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Huawei., business support by IBM and transmission towers by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in India). Ericsson agreed for the first time, to be paid by the minute for installation and maintenance of their equipment rather than being paid up front. This enabled the company to provide pan-India phone call rates of Rs. 1/minute (U$0.02/minute). Call rates have come down much further. During the last financial year [2009-10], Bharti has roped in a strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the Telemedia Business.

The company is structured into four strategic business units - Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise and Digital TV. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 89 Indian cities. The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services across India. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to telcos.

In January 2010, company announced that Manoj Kohli, Joint Managing Director and current Chief Executive Officer of Indian and South Asian operations, will become the Chief Executive Officer of the International Business Group from 1 April 2010. He will be overseeing Bharti's overseas business. Current Dy. CEO, Sanjay Kapoor, will replace Manoj Kohli and will be the CEO, effective from 1 April 2010.

History

Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Sunil Mittal was into an agreement with Germany's Siemens to manufacture the company's push-button telephone models for the Indian market. In 1986, Sunil Bharti Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) and his company became the first in India to offer push-button telephones, establishing the basis of Bharti Enterprises. This first-mover advantage allowed Sunil Mittal to expand his manufacturing capacity elsewhere in the telecommunications market. By the early 1990s, Sunil Mittal had also launched the country's first fax machines and its first cordless telephones. In 1992, Sunil Mittal won a bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In 1995, Sunil Mittal incorporated the cellular operations as Bharti Tele-Ventures and launched service in Delhi. In 1996, cellular service was extended to Himachal Pradesh. In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended cellular operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti acquired control of Skycell Communications, in Chennai. In 2001, the company acquired control of Spice Cell in Calcutta. Bharti Enterprises went public in 2002, and the company was listed on Mumbai Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, the cellular phone operations were rebranded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar.

In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel began operating in Bangladesh and 16 African countries.

Today, Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India and fifth largest in the world.

Worldwide Presence

Coverage map of Bharti Airtel across 19 countries

Airtel is the 5th largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and has a commercial presence in 19 countries and the Channel Islands.

Its area of operations include:

• 3 countries in the Indian Subcontinent:

Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka

• 16 countries in Africa:

Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

• Channel Islands:

Jersey and Guernsey

Airtel operates on the British Crown Dependency islands of Jersey and Guernsey, under the brand name Airtel-Vodafone, through an agreement with Vodafone.

Airtel operates in the following countries:

Country	Site	Remarks
Bangladesh	www.bd.airtel.com	In January 2010, Bharti Airtel Limited, Asia’s leading integrated telecom services provider, acquired 70% stake in Warid Telecom, Bangladesh, a subsidiary of the UAE-based Abu Dhabi Group. This is Bharti Airtel’s second operation outside of India. On December 20, 2010, Warid Telecom rebranded to airtel.Airtel Bangladesh covers the entire country and has over 4 million customers.
Burkina Faso	africa.airtel.com/burkina	Airtel Burkina Faso is the dominant player with 1,433,000 customers representing 50% market share.
Chad	africa.airtel.com/chad	Airtel Chad is the no. 1 operator with 69% market share.
Democratic Republic of the Congo	africa.airtel.com/drc
Gabon	africa.airtel.com/gabon	The rapidly growing mobile sector in Gabon grew by 16.5 percent from 2007 to 2008 according to statistics from the Bank of Central African States. Airtel Gabon has 829,000 customers and its market share stood at 61%.
Ghana	africa.airtel.com/ghana	Airtel Ghana has over 1 million customers.
India	www.airtel.in	Airtel is the market leader with almost 150 million customers at the end of 2010.
Kenya	africa.airtel.com/kenya	Airtel Kenya is the second largest operator and has 4 million customers.
Madagascar	africa.airtel.com/madagascar	Airtel holds second place in the mobile telecom market in Madagascar, has a 39% market share and over 1.4 million customers.
Malawi	africa.airtel.com/malawi	Airtel Malawi is the market leader with a market share of 72%.
Niger	africa.airtel.com/niger	Airtel Niger is the market leader with a 68% market share.
Nigeria	www.ng.airtel.com
Republic of the Congo	africa.airtel.com/congob	Airtel Congo is the market leader with a 55% market share.
Seychelles	africa.airtel.com/seychelles	Airtel is the leading comprehensive telecommunications services providers with over 55% market share of mobile market in Seychelles.
Sierra Leone	africa.airtel.com/sierra
Sri Lanka	www.airtel.lk	Airtel Lanka commenced operations on 12 January 2009. It has over 1.4 million mobile customers.
Tanzania	africa.airtel.com/sierra	Airtel Tanzania is the market leader with a 38% market share.
Uganda	africa.airtel.com/uganda	Airtel Uganda stands as the no. 2 operator with a market share of 38%.
Zambia	africa.airtel.com/zambia
Channel Islands : Jersey and Guernsey†	www.airtel-vodafone.je	Airtel operates in the Channel Islands under the brand name Airtel-Vodafone through an agreement with Vodafone.

†Jersey and Guernsey are British Crown Dependencies. They are not independent countries. Therefore, Airtel's countries of operation is considered to be 19.

Africa

Official site:Airtel Africa

On 14, February 2010 a statement issued by Zain Ghana, said "the Board of Directors of Kuwait's Zain Group, after its meeting on February 14, 2010, issued a resolution to accept a proposal received from Bharti Airtel Limited (Bharti) to enter into exclusive discussions until 25 March 2010, regarding the sale of its African unit, Zain Africa BV." The offer was for $10.7 billion. The deal would provide Bharti access to 15 more countries in the region, adding around 40.1 million subscribers to its already 125 million-plus user base. The combined revenue of the two entities would be around $12 billion.

The deal ran into hurdles after the government of the of Gabon had come out against the deal, but later approved the sale. The government of Congo Republic had also said Bharti-Zain deal broke law. There was also a dispute about minority ownership of Zain's operations in Nigeria, the biggest market in the deal. Minority shareholder Econet was seeking to overturn a 2006 deal by Zain - then called Celtel - in which it bought a majority stake in Nigerian mobile operator Vee Networks Ltd, now Zain Nigeria. On 8, June 2010, Bharti said the Nigeria ownership dispute had been settled.

On 8, June 2010, Bharti Airtel, in the largest ever telecom takeover by an Indian firm, completed a deal to buy Kuwait-based Zain Telecom's businesses in 15 African countries for $10.7 billion. The transaction is the largest ever cross-border deal in an emerging market and will result in combined revenues of about $13 billion." The overall integration should be complete by the end of this financial year.

On September 1, 2010, Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal said that Bharti Airtel Ltd would change its Africa operations brand from Zain to Airtel by 23 November 2010.

On August 11, 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire 100% stake in Telecom Seychelles for US$62 million taking its global presence to 19 countries. Telecom Seychelles began operations in 1998 and operates 3G, Fixed Line, ship to shore services satellite telephony, among value added services like VSAT and Gateways for International Traffic across the Seychelles under the Airtel brand. The company has over 57 percent share of the mobile market of Seychelles. Airtel announced plans to invest US$10 million in its fixed and mobile telecoms network in the Seychelles over three years , whilst also participating in the Seychelles East Africa submarine cable (SEAS) project. The US$34 million SEAS project is aimed at improving the Seychelles’ global connectivity by building a 2,000 km undersea high speed link to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Airtel offers 3G services in eight countries of Africa. Airtel said that the other eight would also get Airtel 3G. The company wants to tap the African 3G market with a special focus on video services, as it sees a huge demand for video based services there.

One Network

Airtel still operates under the ‘One Network’ system in which travelers’ only need to buy recharge card to top their phones instead of buying another sim when visiting another country.

Airtel Money

The Airtel Money serivce, formally called ZAP has now evolved to e-commerce network. Innovation like buying on-line by making use of single use Master Card application, open platform email, social networking will be available for all Airtel(former Zain) subscribers.

Ghana

Bharti Airtel on November 22, 2010 officially launched their brand in Ghana at the Banquet Hall in Accra, after taking over the operations of Zain. Bharti Airtel is pumping 200 million dollars to expand its operations in Ghana and has also planned to bring its ecosystem of global partners to the country which could result in additional employment opportunities.

The operator has also partnered with telecommunications infrastructure suppliers such as Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, Huawei among others to extend its network to rural areas which are at present disconnected from the world and ensure that Airtel has the best quality network in Ghana and becomes the leader in Africa by 2015.

Unveiling the new brand in Ghana, Philip Sowah, Managing Director of Airtel Ghana made the promise of making mobile communications affordable for all by launching a bundle of products made up of a new Nokia phone plus Airtel Sim card, talk time and SMS credits that is effectively free.

Kenya

Airtel Kenya is the second largest mobile phone operator in Kenya. It has 4 million subscribers as on January 15, 2011.

Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s Kenyan unit will focus on reducing call rates and expanding its customer base after changing its name to Airtel Networks Kenya Ltd. from Zain Kenya, a company official said. Airtel plans to keep costs down in Kenya by sharing infrastructure with existing players and through its partnerships with service providers including IBM Corp., Huawei Technologies Co. and Nokia Oyj, said Rene Meza, managing director of the Kenyan unit. “The tariffs will remain low due to lower overall cost of operations as we enjoy economies of scale through these partnerships,” Meza said at the press briefing. Airtel suffered losses as a result of the reduction in call charges, though the company is keen for those tariffs to remain low as it seeks to grow market share, Meza said.

Airtel Kenya will begin rolling out 3G services in the first quarter of 2011 as part of a push for more customers and a return to profit at its unprofitable African operations. New products will include e-mail and e-commerce services, Rene Meza, managing director of Airtel Networks Kenya Ltd., said in an interview on November 22, 2010 in Nairobi. Airtel is considering subsidizing laptops and Internet-enabled handsets to drive data use in East Africa’s biggest economy, he said. “We have finalized planning for 3G and we expect to have the services rolled at the end of the first quarter, which will change mobile telephony in the country,” Meza said.

Airtel Kenya competes with Safaricom Ltd., Kenya’s biggest mobile-phone company, and Telkom Kenya, a unit of France Telecom.

Nigeria

Airtel Nigeria started operations as Econet Nigeria. Econet was rebranded to Vodacom, South Africa’s second largest telecommunication brand. However, Vodacom did not last a week in the Nigeria. The development prompted Nigeria’s first GSM brand to operate in the country without identifiable corporate name and strategy for over two months. The circumstances created Vmobile, which was made up of a group of Nigerian entrepreneurs who vowed never to let the brand exit without a fight. They (Vmobile) led the unbranded Vmobile to the threshold of MTC, owners of Celtel brand that later acquired the Vmobile and rebranded it, Celtel in Nigeria. Two years after the success story of Celtel, Zain announced takeover of the Celtel brand from MTC across Africa and Middle East. It would be recalled Celtel in 2006. But two years later, precisely on August 1, 2008, Celtel made the way for Zain following the global acquisition of Celtel International by MTC Group, which transformed to Zain.

In just another two years interval, Zain was acquired by Bharti Airtel and rebranded for the sixth time to 'Airtel'.

Tanzania

Airtel Tanzania plans to expand its network and boost market penetration, writes the Citizen Reporter citing comments from Bharti Airtel MD Sam Elangalloor. He said that that Airtel had signed contracts with Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to extend its network to underserved areas. He added that Airtel was looking to expand its group subscriber base by 150 percent by 2013 to 100 million customers across Africa. To help boost take-up in rural areas, Airtel has unveiled a new package in Tanzania offering an Airtel SIM card, Nokia 1280 phone and the equivalent value in Airtel talktime and SMS text messages for TZS 39,000.

Asia

Bangladesh

In January 2010, Bharti Airtel acquired a 70% stake in Warid Telecom Bangladesh, a subsidiary of the UAE-based Abu Dhabi Group for $300 million.

Bharti Airtel is making a fresh investment of USD 300 million to rapidly expand the operations of Warid Telecom and have management and board control of the company. This is the largest investment in Bangladesh by an Indian company. Dhabi Group continues as a strategic partner retaining 30% shareholding and has its nominees on the Board of the Company. The new funding is being utilised for expansion of the network, both for coverage and capacity, and introduction of innovative products and services. As a result of this additional investment, the overall investment in the company will be in the region of USD 1 billion.

This is Bharti Airtel’s second operation outside of India. The company launched its mobile services in Sri Lanka in January 2009 on a state-of-the-art 3.5G network

On December 20, 2010, Warid Telecom rebranded to airtel.

Airtel Bangladesh covers the entire country and has over 4 million customers.

India

Mobile

Airtel has nationwide presence and is the market leader with a market share of almost completely(as of May 2010). It is 6th most valued brand according to an annual survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic Times in 2010.

On 19 October 2004, Airtel announced the launch of a BlackBerry Wireless Solution in India. The launch is a result of a tie-up between Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited and Research In Motion (RIM).

The Apple iPhone 3G was rolled out in India on 22 August 2008 by Airtel & Vodafone. Both the cellular service providers rolled out their Apple iPhone 3GS in the first quarter of 2010. However, high prices and contract bonds discouraged consumers and it was not as successful for both the service providers as much as the iPhone is successful in other markets of the world.

3G

On May 18, 2010, 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel will have to pay the Indian government ₹12,295 crore (US$1.5 billion) for spectrum in 13 circles, the most amount spent by an operator in this auction. Airtel won 3G licences in 13 telecom circles of India: Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (east), Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, Jammu & Kashmir.

On 20 September 2010, Bharti Airtel said that it has given contracts to Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Huawei Technologies to set up infrastructure for providing 3G services in the country. These vendors will plan, design, deploy and maintain 3G-HSPA (third generation, high speed packet access) networks in 13 telecom circles where the company has won 3G licences. While Bharti Airtel has awarded network contracts for seven 3G circles to Ericsson India, NSN would manage networks in three circles. Chinese telecom equipment vendor Huawei Technologies has been introduced as the third partner for three circles.

Airtel is expected to launch its 3G service by February 2011.

Criticism

There has been lot of criticism about Airtel for its unauthorised VAS activation. Many of its services were activated automatically according to a complaint forum. In return Airtel launched STOP/START 121 services for such issues.

Telemedia

The Telemedia business provides services in 89 Indian cities and consists of two brands.

Airtel Broadband provides broadband and IPTV services. Airtel provides both capped as well as unlimited download plans [reduced speeds at unlimited data are implied]. The maximum speed available for home users is 16Mbps.

Airtel Fixed Line which provides fixed line services.

Airtel has about 3.16 million wireline customers, of which 42.6% are broadband/internet subscribers as of August 2010. Until September 18, 2004, Bharti provided fixed-line telephony and broadband services under the Touchtel brand. Bharti now provides all telecom services including fixed-line services under a common brand "Airtel".

Digital Television

Main article: Airtel Digital TV

The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV services across India under the brand name Airtel Digital TV. It started services on 9 October 2008 and has about 32.44 million customers as of August 2010.

Enterprise

The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to telcos through its nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing stations.

Sri Lanka

In December 2008, Bharti Airtel rolled out 3.5G services in Sri Lanka in association with Singapore Telecommunications. Airtel's operation in Sri Lanka, known as Airtel Lanka, commenced operations on 12 January 2009. Airtel Lanka has 1.4 million mobile customers in Sri Lanka, across all administrative districts. Airtel is tho only mobile network that gives 3.6Mb HSDPA connection to sri lankan users. Airtel's normal downloading speed is 2.8Mbps = 350KBps(this is because of the other network utilization's such as calls "audio & video",SMS,MMS,etc.

Channel Islands: Jersey and Guernsey

On 1 May 2007, Jersey Airtel and Guernsey Airtel, both wholly owned subsidiaries of the Bharti Group, announced they would launch mobile services in the British Crown Dependency islands of Jersey and Guernsey under the brand name Airtel-Vodafone after signing an agreement with Vodafone. Airtel-Vodafone operates a 3G network in Jersey and Guernsey.

Jersey and Guernsey are British Crown Dependencies. They are not independent countries. Therefore, Airtel's countries of operation is considered to be 19.

Subscriber Base

Bharti Airtel has crossed the 200 million wireless subscribers mark worldwide. The announcement was made by Sunil Bharti Mittal on 18 November 2010. Out of the 200 million subscribers, 150 million are out of India, 43 million are in Africa and about 7 million are from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The numbers include mobile services subscribers in India, South Asia and Africa, Telemedia services subscribers and Digital services subscribers.

India

The Airtel subscriber base according to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) as of August 2010 was:

Metros

• Chennai - 2,877,029
• Delhi - 6,950,079
• Mumbai - 3,201,916
• Kolkata - 2,947,042
• Hyderabad - 4,567,778
• Bangalore - 5,448,986

"A" Circle

• Andhra Pradesh - 14,240,429
• Gujarat - 5,980,024
• Karnataka - 13,434,418
• Maharashtra - 7,209,072
• Tamil Nadu - 8,744,937

"B" Circle

• Haryana - 1,580,398
• Kerala - 3,332,095
• Madhya Pradesh - 7,496,236
• Punjab - 5,171,278
• Rajasthan - 11,004,105
• Uttar Pradesh (East) - 8,534,334
• Uttar Pradesh (West) - 4,923,409
• West Bengal - 6,644,688

"C" Circle

• Assam - 2,683,243
• Bihar - 12,600,521
• Himachal Pradesh - 1,452,709
• Jammu and Kashmir - 1,751,239
• North Eastern States - 1,612,005
• Orissa - 4,840,243

Airtel is the market leader in India with about 31.18% market share of 481 million GSM mobile connections as of August 2010.

Merger talks

In May 2008, it emerged that Bharti Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company with coverage in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by an Indian firm. However, both sides emphasize the tentative nature of the talks, while The Economist magazine noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying up," as MTN has more subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage. However, the talks fell apart as MTN group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company.

In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it is in Talks with MTN and companies have now agreed discuss the potential transaction exclusively by July 31, 2009. Bharti Airtel said in a statement "Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to announce that it has renewed its effort for a significant partnership with MTN Group".

Talks eventually ended without agreement, due to the South African government opposition.

Bharti Airtel has completed its $9 billion acquisition of African operations from Kuwait's Zain in a deal that would make the firm the world's No. 5 wireless carrier by subscribers.

In March, Bharti struck a deal to buy the Kuwait firm's mobile operations in 15 African countries, in India's second biggest overseas acquisition after Tata Steel's $13 billion buy of Corus in 2007.

Rebranding

On 18 November 2010, Airtel rebranded itself in India in the first phase of a global rebranding strategy. The company unveiled a new logo with 'airtel' written in lower case. Designed by London-based brand agency, Brand Union, the new logo is the letter 'a' in lowercase, with 'airtel' written in lowercase under the logo.

Explaining the new look in detail, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, Bharti Airtel states that the new identity underlines Airtel's willingness to embrace everything that is new. He adds, "The logo type is modern, vibrant and friendly and signals our resolution to be accessible to our customers and stakeholders. And the lowercase is our recognition for humility. The red colour, which is an integral part of the brand, continues to represent heritage, energy and passion. The new curved and the gentle highlight almost gives the impression of a living object; at the same time, it represents a dynamic force of unparalleled energy, brings us closer to consumers and is a symbol which will help ensure instant recognition across diverse international markets."

On November 23, 2010, Airtel's Africa operations were rebranded to 'airtel'. Sri Lanka followed on November 28, 2010 and on December 20, 2010, Warid Telecom rebranded to 'airtel' in Bangladesh.

Sponsorship

On May 9, 2009 Airtel signed a major deal with Manchester United Football Club. As a result of the deal, Airtel gets the rights to broadcast the matches played by the team to its customers.

Bharti Airtel signed a five-year deal with ESPN Star Sports to become the title sponsor of the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. The tournament itself is named "Airtel Champions League Twenty20."

Signature tune

The signature tune of Airtel is composed by Indian musician A. R. Rahman. The tune became hugely popular and is the world's most downloaded mobile music with over 150 million downloads. A new version of the song was released on 18 November 2010, as part of the rebranding of the company. This version too was composed by Rahman himself

Timeline

Logo used by Airtel till 2010 November

The chronology of events since Bharti Tele-Ventures was incorporated in 1995:

1995

• Bharti Cellular launched cellular services as "AirTel" in Delhi.

1996

• STET International Netherlands NV, or STET, a company promoted by Telecom Italia, Italy acquired a 20% equity interest in Bharti Tele-Ventures
• Bharti Telenet launched cellular services in Himachal Pradesh

1997

• British Telecom acquired a 21.05% equity interest in Bharti Cellular
• Bharti Telenet obtained a license for providing fixed-line services in Madhya Pradesh cirlce (and later Chattisgarh).
• Bharti Telecom and British Telecom formed a 51% : 49% joint venture, Bharti BT, for providing VSAT services

1998

• Bharti Telecom and British Telecom formed a 51% : 49% joint venture, "Bharti BT Internet" for providing Internet services
• First Indian private fixed-line services launched in Indore in the Madhya Pradesh circle on June 4, 1998 by Bharti Telenet thereby ending fixed-line services monopoly of Department of Telecom (now BSNL).

1999

• Warburg Pincus (through its investment company Brentwood Investment Holdings Limited) acquired a 19.05% equity interest in Bharti Tele-Ventures
• Bharti Tele-Ventures (by acquiring a 63.45% equity interest in SC Cellular Holdings) acquired an effective 32.36% equity interest in Bharti Mobile (formerly JT Mobiles), the cellular services provider in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh circles
• New York Life Insurance Fund, or NYLIF, acquired a 3% equity interest in Bharti Cellular

2000

• Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired an effective equity interest of 40.5% in Bharti Mobinet (formerly Skycell Communications), the cellular services provider in Chennai
• Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired a 30.2% equity interest of Telecom Italia in Bharti Telenet and 18.8% from Bharti Telecom thereby making Bharti Telenet a 100% subsidiary of Bharti Tele-Ventures
• SingTel (through its investment company Pastel Limited) acquired STET's 15.3% equity interest in Bharti Tele-Ventures
• Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired an additional effective 41.64% equity interest in Bharti Mobile (by acquiring the remaining 36.55% equity interest in SC Cellular) resulting in Bharti Tele-Ventures holding an effective 74% equity interest in Bharti Mobile.

2001

• Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired NYLIF's 3% equity interest in Bharti Cellular
• Bharti Telesonic entered into a joint venture, Bharti Aquanet, with SingTel for establishing a submarine cable landing station at Chennai
• Bharti Tele-Ventures issued additional equity for approximately US$ 481.30 million to SingTel, Warburg Pincus, AIF group, IFC, NYLIF, and Seejay Cellular and Bharti Telecom
• Bharti Cellular acquired a 100% equity interest in Bharti Mobitel (formerly Spice Cell ), the cellular services provider in Kolkata
• Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired 85% and 15% in Bharti Telespatial from Bharti Telecom and Intel, respectively
• Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired a 44% equity interest in Bharti Cellular from British Telecom, thereby making Bharti Cellular its 100% subsidiary
• Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired an additional 49% equity interest in Bharti Mobinet from Millicom International and BellSouth International, thereby owning 89.5% equity interest in Bharti Mobinet, which was further increased to 95.3% following an issuance of additional equity shares by way of rights issue
• Punjab license restored to Bharti Mobile by the Department of Telecom (DoT) and migration to NTP - 1999 accepted
• Bharti Cellular entered into license agreements to provide cellular services in eight new circles following the fourth operator cellular license bidding process
• Bharti Telenet entered into license agreements to provide fixed-line services in the Haryana, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka circles
• Bharti Telesonic entered into a license agreement with the DoT to provide national long distance services across India
• Bharti Aquanet, Bharti Telesonic and Bharti Cellular entered into license agreements with the DoT to provide ISP services in India
• Bharti Telesonic launched national long distance services under the brand name of IndiaOne
• Bharti Telenet launched fixed line services in Haryana under the brand name of "TouchTel".

2002

• Enters into a 5-year agreement with Escotel (now called Idea Cellular) and ETL of the Escorts group to contract leased line connectivity for its cellular operations
• Mr. Ravi Akhoury ceases to be Director of Bharti Tele
• DoT grants ILD Telephony License to Bharti Telesonic, subsidiary of the company
• Signs MoU with Telia AB to buy out their 26% stake in Bharti Mobile
• Ties up with Secondary School Certification (SSC) Board, Hyderabad, where Bharti will announce SSC results to its customers on their mobile phones
• ICICI Bank ties up with Bharti for pre-paid mobile cards via ATMs
• Bharti forays into Mumbai with offers
• Alpine International Ltd. and ELM International Ltd. acquire shares of Bharti Tele-Ventures

2003

• Airtel breaks interconnectivity with Tata Teleservices in Andhra Pradesh
• Company accorded its approval for amalgamation of its subsidiary companies viz: Bharti Telenet Ltd, Bharti Telesonic Ltd, Bharti Broadband Networks Ltd and Bharti Comtel Ltd through scheme of Amalgamation. The merged entity would be renamed as Bharti Infotel Ltd
• Airtel launches Local direct dialling facility in Chennai circle
• Bharti Cellular unveils "CareTouch" service
• Cellular brand "Airtel" unveils free multimedia messaging services (MMS) for its customers. The company has also rolled out pan-India GPRS for its corporate subscribers
• Launches its `IndiaOne MeetXpress' audio-conferencing service
• Punjab, Haryana get free incoming calls from Airtel
• AirTel provides SMS facilities to hearing impaired in Chennai
• Goa, Maharashtra gets 'voice portal' services by Bharti Cellular
• Launches free additional connection to its new subscribers in New Delhi
• Mr Sin Hang Boon and Mr Wong Hung Khim have resigned from the Board of Directors of Bharti Tele Ventures Ltd with effect from February 27, 2003.
• Airtel launches its GPRS network in Chennai
• Airtel subscribers cross 3 million mark
• AirTel unveils RAD system
• Mr P M Sinha resigns from the Board of Directors of the Company with effect from March 31, 2003.
• Bharti TeleVentures announces the completion of merger with Bharti Mobitel
• Bharti Mobitel Ltd. merged with Bharti Cellular Ltd.
• "Airtel" and "Touchtel" jointly offer free Touchtel land line for post-paid Airtel connection
• Airtel rolls out voice mail service for pre-paid customers
• AirTel unveils new scheme for pre-paid customers giving away free talk time worth Rs 10 crore
• Airtel surpasses 4 lakh subscriber base in Karnataka
• Bharti announces new tariff plan AirTel 012
• Offers 0-1-2, a new cellular package for the customers, which means zero charges on incoming calls, Re 1 on mobile-to-mobile outgoing calls, Rs 2 on mobile-to-mobile STD calls
• Rolls out Airtel messenger service
• AirTel offers bundled handset, connection package for Rs 5715
• Airtel slashes SMS rates to 60 paise; excludes Delhi and Mumbai
• Bharti cellular, wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Tele-Ventures, increases its stake to 100% in Bharti Mobile
• Signs distribution pact with Hathway Cable. With this alliance, Bharti is said to be the first telecom firm to step into television distribution services
• Six cell operators move over from Bharti to VSNL
• Airtel augments cellular coverage in Tamil Nadu by including Arcot & Walajapet in its network
• Airtel ties up with Coke in Chennai to sell its "Magic" prepaid cards
• AirTel embarks on network expansion in Hyderabad
• Airtel unveils IndiaOne Long Distance Calling Card
• AirTel introduces unified tariff package in Tamil Nadu and Chennai
• Airtel becomes front runner in Karnataka's mobile services market
• Bharti Tele launches 'Always on' service to its subscribers
• State Bank of India and AirTel announce EMI offer at Rs 299
• Bharti and MTV join hands to launch new SIM card
• AirTel unveils new post-paid scheme at zero rental
• AirTel launches `Happy Plan' in AP
• Airtel emerges as the highest selling pre-paid card
• Airtel join hands with Alcatel & Videocon to launch new scheme
• AirTel service provider touches 5 lakh customers in Punjab
• Airtel offers 5 new services for its customers in Mumbai
• Bharti launches first dual band network in Delhi
• Gets 14^th place among top 25 Cos in India
• Bharti Mobile crosses 4 lakh mobile subscribers in AP
• Airtel holds top position in terms of dealer penetration
• Prof. V S Raju has been inducted on the Board of Directors of the Company.
• Touchtel launches SMS service in fixed line phones in Karnal and Panipat in Haryana.
• Airtel unveils special offers in Kerala
• AirTel launches InnoWest for the western region
• Bharti Tele-Ventures enters into an agreement with Telesystem (Mauritius) Pvt. Ltd
• Airtel slashes out going SMS price to 30ps
• On December 16, 2003, Airtel announced the launch of expense tracker service, which provides customers the option of tracking their day-to-day expenses on a daily or monthly basis. This service will allow a user to track expenses, while on the move by sending an SMS.
• AirTel introduces MTV Club Card in Chennai

2004

• Bharti unveils new card for Mecca piligrims
• AirTel enrolls 50,000 customers in its mobile service in 60 days
• Launches WAP enabled portal Service in Kerala
• Bharti Cellular's AirTel has extended its mobile connectivity to Karaikkal, Nagur, Mannargudi and Kovilpalayam in Tamil Nadu.
• Airtel customer base touches new high of 5 lakh mark in Andhra Pradesh
• On Pongal, Airtel is launching its first ever MMS downloads in Tamil.
• AirTel tie up with MAA TV
• Airtel launches Rs 50 pre-paids recharge
• AirTel launched a family pack for its post-paid customers in Chennai on January 29.
• Bharti Tele-Ventures enters into a three year service agreement with Ericsson
• Bharti Tele-Ventures (BTVL) has signed and received unified access service licence to provide GSM services in Uttar Pradesh (East), West Bengal & Andaman Nicobar, Orissa, Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir. The licence has been granted to Bharti Cellular Ltd (BCL), the cellular arm and subsidiary of BTVL.
• Airtel and Mobilink, the only GSM cellular service provider in Pakistan, sign the first-ever bilateral roaming agreement between India and Pakistan
• Acquires switching systems from Tekelec
• Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd signed an information technology outsourcing deal with infotech major IBM, estimated to be in the range of 0-750 million for a ten-year period.
• Jayant Khosla, new chief executive officer, Mumbai
• Signs MoU to join the South East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE-4) consortium along with 15 other global telecom operators.
• Bharti Tele-Ventures has struck a deal with Shyam Telecom to buy out the latter's 67.5 per cent stake in cellular services company Hexacom for Rs 430 crore.
• Samsung India Electronics Limited has tied up with cellular operator Bharti for bundling its mobile handsets with a connection.
• The Bharti group finalised a Rs 500-crore deal to share its national long-distance (STD) network with VSNL in a first-of-its-kind accord between two top telecom service providers in a bid to optimise capacities in the NLD segment.
• Internet gateway and services provider, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) has signed a Right to Use (RoU) agreement to deploy mobile telephony major, Bharti Tele-Ventures' existing National Long Distance (NLD) backbone.
• Airtel offers talktime transfer service
• Airtel has announced money-back guarantee offer in case of call drop or poor network experience for its subscribers
• Bharti launches 2-in-1 card
• Airtel launched two-way international roaming and GPRS for prepaid customers in the Maharshtra and Goa circles
• Bharti Tele-Ventures has bagged the Asian MobileNews operator of the year award in India and the subcontinent
• Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd has awarded a million equipment contract to Swedish telecoms company Ericsson
• Bharti Televentures announced formation of a new strategic business unit to offer various telecom and IT services through a single contact
• Bharti Televentures unveiled a mobile portal featuring sports, entertainment and news among others
• Airtel ties up with Micro Tech to set up 'Mcops' vehicle security system
• Bharti Tele-Venture on July 19 launched "Caller Tunes" service, a personalized mobile music service where the caller hears songs and other sound clips instead of the traditional switchboard ring-ring tone
• Airtel, a private telecom services provider, has commissioned its first 24x7 customer service centre in Andhra Pradesh
• Airtel unveils Rs 199 pre paid card
• AirTel join hands with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) to offer executive MBA programme
• AirTel introduces new scheme for hearing impaired in Maharashtra & Goa
• AirTel inks pact with JP Mobile
• Rolls out Enhanced Data Rate for Global Evolution (EDGE) network in Pune on September 9, 2004, Ties up with Nokia for sale of Nokia 6230, an EDGE-enabled handset.
• AirTel unveils first virtual calling cards in India
• BTVL rolls out EDGE services in Bangalore
• Airtel rolls out Full Talktime Advantage card
• Airtel rolls out wi-fi services in Mumbai
• BTVL launches new 'Airtel Broadband Friendly Offer'
• Airtel launches GPRS services for pre-paid customers
• Airtel partners with ITPO to set up Wi-Fi network in Delhi
• Airtel launches EDGE services and a new pre-paid plan for Chennai
• Airtel introduces LAS in Karnataka

2005

• Airtel launches video services for its GPRS customers on February 22, 2005
• Airtel unveils new TV ad featuring Sachin Tendulkar and Shah Rukh Khan
• Bharti Tele-Ventures launches telecom network in Andaman & Nicobar
• BTVL unveil fixed line, broadband services
• Bharti inks 5-m deal with Nokia for rural network expansion
• Bharti Tele Ventures Ltd has announced that Airtel, ICICI Bank & VISA have joined hands to launch mCheq - a revolutionary new service - a credit card on the mobile phone
• Airtel introduces BlackBerry Connect in India
• Bharti Tele Ventures announces agreement with Vodafone
• Airtel unveils 'free flight' offer
• Bharti Tele-Ventures launches under sea cable system

2006

• Airtel unveils Re 1 STD plans
• Airtel launches NetXpert.
• Airtel launches Post2Pre recharging service on April 04,2006.
• Airtel sets up customer centre
• Airtel announced the launch of `Save My Phone Contact' service for its pre-paid and post-paid customers in Delhi
• Bharti Tele Ventures bags 'Wireless Service Provider of the Year' & 'Competitive Service Provider of the Year' awards
• Cellebrum join hands with Airtel
• Airtel Mega unveiled in Coimbatore
• Bharti Airtel Ltd and Microsoft announced a strategic partnership that will offer a range of software and services for small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India.
• Bharti Airtel Ltd on Nov 8, announced a first-of-its-kind alliance with the Adani Group for establishing an end-to-end modern telecommunication network infrastructure for the latter's multi-sector special economic zone (SEZ), located near Mundra Port in Kutch district of Gujarat.

2007

• Bharti Airtel has come out with a slew of initiatives including buying out SingTel's 50 per cent stake in joint venture under sea cable company Network i2i
• Bharti Airtel on Feb 11, has been awarded QCI-DL Shah National Award on Economics of Quality.
• Bharti Airtel Ltd has announces changes in the operational leadership structure and roles in the Company effective April 01, 2007.
• Bharti Airtel Ltd on April 01, 2007, has announces the reduction in ISD Tariffs for all its mobile customers in India.

8Airtel signs agreement with HTC for touch screen mobile.

2008

• Nokia Siemens Networks on Jan 3 declared that it has been awarded a multi million euro contract from Bharti Airtel Ltd for deployment of a single interactive voice response (IVR) platform across 23 circles. The three-year turnkey contract comprises designing, planning, systems integration and optimisation services to raise overall customer experience. The new IVR solution will enable Airtel to deliver services such as voice SMS, televoting, call management services, caller ring back tone and voice portal on a faster time-to-market basis and, therefore, reduce OPEX costs.
• Bharti Airtel Ltd on February 13, 2008 has announced that it has achieved the 60 million mobile, fixed line and broadband customers.
• Bharti Airtel tied up with US-based Apple Inc to bring the popular GSM-based iPhone in the country.
• Bharti Airtel Ltd has forged a technology alliance with Infosys Technologies Ltd to launch its Direct-to-Home (DTH) television services. Infosys, through its digital convergence platform, will offer a suite of products including devices, application servers and interactive applications for Airtel's DTH services.

2009

• Bharti Airtel signed a five-year managed services deal with Alcatel-Lucent for its fixed-line and broadband operations.
• Bharti Airtel launched the 'Airtel Advantage' initiative. The initiative is aimed at offering the added advantage to Airtel customers to be in touch with each other at an affordable rate of 50 paise per minute, be it a national long distance call (STD) or a local call.
• In order to create products and services for the small, medium and large enterprises, Bharti Airtel and Cisco announced a strategic business alliance. The alliance would combine the strengths of Airtel's network service and Cisco' Internet Protocol (IP) technologies.
• Airtel and mChek announce milestone of 1 Million users and introduce a broad range of new mCommerce services.

2010

• On 14, February 2010, Zain Ghana issued a resolution to accept a $10.7 billion buyout offer from Bharti Airtel Limited (Bharti) to enter into exclusive discussions until 25 March 2010, regarding the sale of its African unit, Zain Africa BV.
• Bharti Airtel submitted its bid for 3G spectrum auction which starts from April 9, 2010.
• Bharti Airtel has partnered with US-based software maker VMware Inc. It has done this in order to focus on the cloud-based managed computer services market.
• On May 18, 2010, Airtel won 3G spectrum in 13 circles: Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (West), Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, Jammu & Kashmir for Rs. 12,295 crores.
• Bharti Airtel wins broadband spectrum in four circles: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata for Rs. 3314.36 crores.
• On 8, June 2010, Bharti Airtel completed a deal to Zain Telecom's businesses in 15 African countries for $10.7 billion.
• On August 11, 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire 100% stake in Telecom Seychelles for US$62 million taking its global presence to 19 countries.
• On 20 September 2010, Bharti Airtel said that it has given contracts to Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Huawei Technologies to set up infrastructure for providing 3G services in the country.
• On 18, November,2010, Bharti Airtel announced a re-branding campaign wherein, they would be referred as airtel, with a new logo.

See also

• Airtel Lanka
• Airtel in Bangladesh
• Bharti Airtel Directors
• Bharti Airtel on Wikinvest

External links

• Airtel Official Site
• Airtel Lanka Official Site
• Airtel Africa Official Site
• Airtel's Sri Lanka Licence
• Airtel-Vodafone CI
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