Bharti Airtel Limited is a global Indian telecommunication services company based in New Delhi, India. Operates in 18 countries in South Asia and Africa. Airtel offers GSM, 3G and 4G LTE mobile services, fixed broadband and voice services, depending on the country of operation. It is the largest mobile network operator in India and the third largest in the world with 400 million subscribers. Airtel was named India's second most valuable brand in Brandz's first ranking by Millward Brown and WPP plc.
Airtel is credited with pioneering its business strategy to outsource all of its commercial operations, except marketing, sales and finance, and the construction of the low-cost, high-volume "minute factory" model. The strategy has since been adopted by several operators. The Airtel team is supplied and maintained by Ericsson and Nokia Solutions and Networks, while IT support is provided by IBM. The transmission towers are maintained by Bharti subsidiaries and joint ventures, including Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers in India. Ericsson agreed for the first time to be paid per minute for the installation and maintenance of its equipment instead of being prepaid, which allowed Airtel to provide low calling rates of ₹ 1 (1.5 ¢ US) / minute.
Airtel India is the largest mobile phone provider and second largest fixed-line provider in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. It offers its telecommunications services under the "airtel" brand, and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal.
