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 the business strategy of outsourcing all of its commercial operations, except marketing, sales and finance, and building 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.
History
In 1984, Sunil Mittal began mounting push-button phones in India, which he previously used to import from a Taiwanese company, Kingtel, replacing the old and bulky rotary phones that were in use in the country at that time. Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated and entered into a technical link with Siemens AG of Germany for the manufacture of electronic pushbuttons. In the early 1990s, Bharti manufactured fax machines, cordless telephones and other telecommunications equipment. He named his first button-like phones' Mitbrau. In 1992, it successfully tendered for one of the four licenses of the mobile phone network auctioned in India. One of the conditions for Delhi's cellular license was that the bidder had some experience as a telecom operator. Thus, Mittal signed an agreement with the French telecommunications group Vivendi. He was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecommunications business as an important growth area. His plans were finally approved by the government in 1994 and he launched services in Delhi in 1995, when Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel. Within a few years, Bharti became the first telecommunications company to cross the 2 million mobile subscriber mark. Bharti also reduced cellular STD / ISD rates in India under the brand name 'Indiaone'.
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 became public in 2002, and the company was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, cellular phone operations were re-branded under the unique Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar. This expansion allowed him to offer voice services throughout India. Airtel launched "Hello Tunes", a Caller ring back tone service (CRBT), in July 2004 becoming the first operator in India to do so. The Airtel song, composed by A.R. Rahman, was the most popular song of that year. In May 2008, it emerged that Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the South African-based telco MTN Group, with coverage in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering $ 45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by an Indian company. However, both sides emphasize the tentative nature of the talks, while The Economist magazine noted: "In any case, Bharti would marry," as MTN has more subscribers, higher incomes and greater geographic coverage. However, the talks collapsed as the MTN group attempted to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company.
In May 2009, Bharti Airtel reconfirmed that it was in talks with MTN and the companies agreed to discuss the possible transaction exclusively by July 31, 2009. The talks ended without agreement, some sources indicating that this was due to opposition from the South African government. In 2009, Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the fixed-line business. Bharti Airtel later awarded Alcatel-Lucent a three-year contract to establish an Internet Protocol access network across the country. This would help consumers access the Internet faster and surf the Internet with high quality mobile phones. In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In June 2010, Bhartil acquired Zain Telecom's African business for $ 10.7 billion, making it the largest acquisition ever made by an Indian telco. In 2012, Bharti linked Wal-Mart, the US retail giant, to start a series of retail stores in India. In 2014, Bharti planned to acquire Loop Mobile for $ 7 billion ($ 100 million), but the deal was later cancelled. Bharti Airtel Limited ("Airtel"), the world's third-largest mobile operator with operations in 20 countries in Asia and Africa, said today that its Treasury division has been awarded as a Top Team Treasurer (Asia) Adam Smith Asia 2015.
