Bharti Airtel Limited (NSE: BHARTIARTL, BSE: 532454), commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian telecommunications company that operates

in 20 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 230.8 million customers across 19 countries as of June 2011.[2] It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with over 175.65 million subscribers at the end of December 2011.[3] Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband andsubscription television 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.[4] The company also provides landline 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 all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance. Its network (base stations, microwave links, etc.) are maintained by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Huawei,[5] business support is provided by IBM, and transmission towers are maintained by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in India).[6] 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 (US$0.02/minute). Call rates have come down much further.[7] During the last financial year [200910], Bharti has negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the Telemedia Business.
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Organisational Structure 3 Worldwide presence 4 India

4.1 Mobile

o o o

4.1.1 3G 4.1.2 4G 4.1.3 VAS Fraud 4.1.4 Controversy

4.2 Telemedia 4.3 Digital Television 4.4 Enterprise

4.4.1 Mobile data service 4.4.2 Enterprise business solutions 4.4.3 Android-based tablet

5 Rest of the World

o o o o

5.1 Africa 5.2 Bangladesh 5.3 Sri Lanka 5.4 Channel Islands: Jersey and Guernsey

6 Subscriber Base

6.1 India

7 Acquisitions and Mergers

o o

7.1 MTN 7.2 Zain

7.2.1 Telecom Seychelles

8 Joint Ventures

8.1 Airtel-Ericsson

9 Rebranding 10 Sponsorship 11 Signature tune 12 Green initiative

o o

12.1 GreenTowers P7 program 12.2 Energy conservation

13 Timeline 14 See also 15 References

16 External links

[edit]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 Bombay 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.'2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel began operating end Today, Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India and fifth largest in the world.[citation
needed]

[edit]Organisational

Structure

The organisational structure that existed till recently concentrated on the hierarchy of the operations(not services)inside the company as a whole. The structure depicts the corresponding operation/region of different in-charges and hence it didn't hold anyone responsible for each of its services. So, the company found it better to restructure its organisational chart and it came into implementation from 1 August. The transformed organisational structure will have two distinct Customer Business Units (CBU) with clear focus on B2C (Business to Customer) and B2B (Business to Business) segments. Bharti Airtel's B2C business unit will comprehensively service the retail consumers, homes and small offices, by combining the erstwhile business units Mobile, Telemedia, Digital TV, and other emerging businesses (like M-commerce, M-health,

M-advertising etc.). The B2C organization will consist of Consumer Business and Market Operations.it is the largest telecommunication company in india
[edit]Worldwide

presence

Coverage map of Bharti Airtel across 20 countries

Airtel is the 5th largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and has a commercial presence in 20 countries and the Channel Islands.

Its area of operations include:

The Indian Subcontinent:

Airtel Bangla, in Bangladesh Airtel, in India Airtel Sri Lanka, in Sri Lanka Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Airtel Africa, which operates in 17 African countries:

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

Airtel Bangladesh had about 5.1 million customers at the end

of June 2011.[8]

Burkina Faso

africa.airtel.com/burkina

Airtel Burkina Faso is the dominant player with 1,433,000 customers representing 50% market share.[9]

Chad

africa.airtel.com/chad

Airtel Chad is the no. 1 operator with 69% market share.[9]

Democratic Republic of the Congo

africa.airtel.com/drc

Airtel is the market leader with almost 5 million customers at the end of 2010.

Gabon

africa.airtel.com/gabon

Airtel Gabon has 829,000 customers and its market share stood at 61%.[10]

Ghana

africa.airtel.com/ghana

Airtel Ghana had about 1.76 million customers at the end of 2010.[11]

India

www.airtel.in

Airtel is the market leader with almost 152.5 million customers at the end of 2010.[11]

Kenya

africa.airtel.com/kenya

Airtel Kenya is the second largest operator and has 4 million customers.[12]

Madagascar

Airtel holds second place in the mobile telecom market in africa.airtel.com/madagascar Madagascar, has a 39% market share and over 1.4 million customers.[9]

Malawi

africa.airtel.com/malawi

Airtel Malawi is the market leader with a market share of 72%.[9]

Niger

africa.airtel.com/niger

Airtel Niger is the market leader with a 68% market share.[9]

Nigeria

www.ng.airtel.com

Republic of the Congo

africa.airtel.com/congob

Airtel Congo is the market leader with a 55% market share.[9]

Rwanda

On 8 September 2011, Airtel announced that it had been awarded a licence by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency to operate 2G and 3G GSM mobile services in Rwanda.[13]

Seychelles

africa.airtel.com/seychelles

Airtel is the leading comprehensive telecommunications services providers with over 55% market share of mobile market in Seychelles.[14]

Sierra Leone

africa.airtel.com/sierra

Sri Lanka

www.airtel.lk

Airtel Lanka commenced operations on 12 January 2009. It had about 1.8 million mobile customers at the end of 2010.[11]

Tanzania

africa.airtel.com/tanzania

Airtel Tanzania is the market leader with a 38% market share.[9]

Uganda

africa.airtel.com/uganda

Airtel Uganda stands as the no. 2 operator with a market share of 38%.[9]

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. [edit]India [edit]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.[15][16] 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 as the iPhone is in other markets of the world. The Apple iPhone 4 was introduced on 27 May 2011 by Airtel & Aircel. The iPhone 4S in India was available on Airtel and Aircel . While in other countries carrier locked phones ( phones using the network only of carrier from which they are brought ) have less price compared to fully unlocked phones ( phones having the allowance of using any network supported ) the carrier of India Sell at the same price of an unlocked version and are available more expensive then other countries , and therefore having less buys .
[edit]3G

On 18 May 2010, 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel will have to pay the Indian government 12,295 crore (US$2.7 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.[17] Airtel also operates 3G services in Maharastra, Goa, Kanpur and Kolkata through an

agreement with Vodafone and in Gujarat through an agreement withIdea. This gives Airtel a 3G presence in 15 out of 22 circles in India. 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.[18] On 24 January 2011, Airtel launched 3G services in Bangalore, Karnataka its largest circle by revenue. With this launch, Airtel became the third private operator (fifth overall) to launch its 3G services in the country following Reliance Communications and Tata Docomo.[19] On 27 January 2011, Airtel launched 3G in Chennai and Coimbatore. On 27 July 2011 Airtel launched 3G in three major cities in Kerala (Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut) with 3G network sharing agreement between idea.[20] Airtel plans to cover 1,500 cities across 13 circles by the end of March 2012. The company, which has 3G licences for 13 circles, is also in talks with other service providers to roll out the services in the remaining 10 circles as part of its roaming offerings.[21] Airtel had about 3 million 3G subscribers as of May 2011.[22]
[edit]4G

On 19 May 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in India ended. Airtel paid 3314.36 crores for spectrum in 4 circles. The circles it will provide 4G in are Maharashtra,Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata.[23] According to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director general Rajan S. Mathews, Airtel is expected to launch 4G services in first quarter of 2012.[24] They are expected to use LTEtechnology.
[edit]VAS Fraud

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. Several thousands of users were falsely billed, for example downloading wallpaper or ringtones. In return Airtel launched STOP/START 121 services for such issues.[25][26] Alternatively, you can sign up on the "Do Not Disturb" list to avoid all telemarketing calls and SMSes.[27]
[edit]Controversy

Bharti Airtel(India) along with Loop Mobile, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Vodafone was issued notices by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) for violation of Mobile number portability (MNP) regulations. According to TRAI, they had received complaints from customers regarding wrong rejection of porting requests by telecom operators and 10 had been charged for a message requesting porting code through number 1900.[28] Bharti Airtel faces the largest number of complaints, at 893 by December 2011, for rejecting mobile number porting requests. People having cancer due to tower above building are also reported while they mostly are found to be of Airtel and has one of the worst towers in India .
[edit]Telemedia

The Telemedia business provides services in 89 Indian cities and consists of two brands.[29] 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 16Mbit/s. 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.[30] Until 18 September 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".
[edit]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.[30]
[edit]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. It has two sections under it.
[edit]Mobile data service

The different services under mobile data are BlackBerry services,a web-enabled mobile email solution working on 'Push Technology', USB modem that helps in getting instant access to Internet and corporate applications,Airtel Data Card that gives the liberty to access the internet

anytime, Easy Mail is a platform that provides access to personal/corporate e-mails independent of handset operating system and application services that shorten the queues at the billing section, off-load the pressure on the billing staff and bring convenience to the user.
[edit]Enterprise business solutions

There are two kind of solutions offered by Airtel. One is GPRS Based Solutions like mobile applications tools for enterprise, TrackMate, automatic meter reading solutions etc. and the other is SMS Based Solutions like interactive sms,bulk sms, inbound call center solutions.
[edit]Android-based tablet

Beetel Teletech Ltd., a unit of Bharti Enterprises Ltd., on 18 August launched a 9,999 rupees ($220) 7-inch tablet in India based on Google Inc.'s Android operating system. The offering is intended to capitalize on the expected demand for cheap computing devices in the world's fastest-growing and second-largest mobile phone market.[31]
[edit]Rest

of the World

[edit]Africa

Main article: Airtel Africa

[edit]Bangladesh

Main article: Airtel Bangla

[edit]Sri

Lanka Islands: Jersey and Guernsey

Main article: Bharti Airtel Lanka

[edit]Channel

Main article: Airtel-Vodafone 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 ofJersey[32] and Guernsey[33] 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.
[edit]Subscriber

Base

Bharti Airtel has about 230.8 million subscribers worldwide 169.18 million in India, 46 million are in Africa, 4 million in Bangladesh and 1.8 million in Sri Lanka as of the end of June 2011. The numbers include mobile services subscribers in 19 countries and Indian Telemedia services and Digital services subscribers.[34]

[edit]India

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

Hyderabad 8,947,870 Chennai 2,947,870 Delhi 7,420,171 Mumbai 3,263,688 Kanpur - 3,259,687 Kolkata 3,181,073

"A" Circle

Andhra Pradesh 15,329,598 Gujarat 5,980,024 Karnataka 14,004,247 Maharashtra 7,865,425 Tamil Nadu 9,157,295

"B" Circle

Haryana 1,856,093 Kerala 3,383,097 Madhya Pradesh 8,527,584 Punjab 5,946,742 Rajasthan 12,001,442 Uttar Pradesh (East) 11,455,638 Uttar Pradesh (West) 5,475,843 West Bengal 7,592,487

"C" Circle

Assam 2,828,490 Bihar 13,901,163 Himachal Pradesh 1,528,727 Jammu and Kashmir 1,879,828

North Eastern States 1,748,202 Orissa 4,989,102

Airtel is the market leader in India with about 152,495,219 out of the total 745,000,000 subscribers in India or about 20.46% market share as of December 2010.[citation needed] The Brand Trust Report [35] published by Trust Research Advisory, places Airtel as the only mobile operator in the top 10 most trusted brands in India
[edit]Acquisitions [edit]MTN

and Mergers

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.[36] However, the talks fell apart as MTN group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company.[37] 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 31 July 2009.[38] 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".[39] Talks eventually ended without agreement, due to the South African government opposition.[40]
[edit]Zain

In March 2010, 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. Bharti Airtel completed its $9 billion acquisition of African operations from Kuwait's Zain, making the firm the world's No. 5 wireless carrier by subscribers.Airtel has reported that its revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 grew by 53% to US$3.2 billion compared to the previous year, newly acquired Zain Africa division contributed US$911 million to the total.However, net profits dropped by 41% from US$470 million last year to US$291 million this year due to a US$188 million increase in radio spectrum charges in India and an increase of US$106 million in debt interest.[citation needed]
[edit]Telecom Seychelles

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% share of the mobile market of Seychelles.[41] 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.[42]
[edit]Joint

Ventures

[edit]Airtel-Ericsson

As per a five-year managed services agreement signed recently[when?], Ericsson will manage and optimize Airtels mobile networks in Africa. Ericsson will modernize and upgrade Airtels mobile networks in Africa with the latest technology including its multi standard RBS 6000 base station.As part of the modernization, Ericsson will also provide technology consulting, network planning & design and network deployment.Ericsson has been the managed services and network technology partner in the Asian operations.[citation needed]
[edit]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.[43] On 23 November 2010, Airtel's Africa operations were rebranded to 'airtel'. Sri Lanka followed on 28 November 2010 and on 20 December 2010, Warid Telecom rebranded to 'airtel' in Bangladesh.
[edit]Sponsorship

The Circuit's official logo.

On 9 May 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. But now the deal is terminated and Nokia is sponsoring Champions League Twenty20 cricket."[44] Airtel, also signed a deal to be title sponsor the inaugural Formula One Indian Grand Prix during the 2011 season.[45]
[edit]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.[46] A new version of the song was released on 18 November 2010, as part of the rebranding of the company.[46][47]This version too was composed by Rahman himself.[47]
[edit]Green

initiative

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2011) This section appears to be written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by rewriting promotional content from a neutral point of viewand removing any inappropriate external links. (October
2011)

[edit]GreenTowers

P7 program

As of today,Bharti Infratel is the only telecom tower company, which has installed almost 3 MWT of solar capacity on their network, generating more than 5 mn units of electricity every year.The Green Towers P7 program is scoped for 22,000 tower sites (primarily rural areas having low or no Grid Power availability) out of which 5,500 sites have already been implemented in the first year as a part of this 3-year program. Once completed, the initiative will reduce diesel consumption by 66 mn litres per year with a significant carbon dioxide reduction of around 1.5 lac MT per year. Bharti Infratel bagged the 2011 'Green Mobile Award ' at the GSMA Mobile World Congress at Barcelona and was also awarded the 2010 innovative infrastructure company of the year award at the CNBC Infrastructure Awards for this groundbreaking initiative.Bharti remains the first company in the world to introduce the practice of sharing of passive infrastructure by collaborating with their competition to share mobile towers and to

reduce the collective carbon footprint of the industry. This has become a subject of case studies in institutions including Harvard Business School.[citation needed]
[edit]Energy

conservation

The company has installed solar hot water generator at its main campus in Gurgaon for fulfilling the hot water requirement in the cafeteria. Majority of its facilities across NCR region are now equipped with LES (Lighting Energy Savers) which have reduced energy consumption in the lighting system to the tune of 1025%. Variable Frequency Drives installed in AHU (Air Handling Unit) at its campus have helped in enhancing the efficiency of cooling system by 10%. These measures have resulted in a total saving of 8.5 lakh units of electricity per year. Airtel has embarked upon technology related initiatives like virtualization of servers that has helped it release over 500 CPUs. Also the drive of sending e-bills to the post-paid customers is helping save 12,840 trees annually. Within its campus the Secure Print Solution' an automated queue management based secured printing solution has led to an annualized saving of about 8 metric tonnes of paper. Alternate energy sources such as solar energy They have already deployed these at as many as 1050 sites thus saving 6.9 mn litres of diesel and approximately Rs. 280 mn. Energy efficiency measures such as Integrated Power Management Systems and variable speed DC generators It has resulted in the reduction in the rate of diesel consumption by 1.2 mn litres. They have already saved Rs. 47 mn across nearly 900 sites. Demand side management like Free Cooling Units (FCU) instead of air conditioners It has already been implemented across 3400+ sites, saving consumption of 4.1 mn litres of diesel.
[edit]Timeline

Logo used by Airtel till 2010 November

The chronology of events since Bharti Tele-Ventures was incorporated in 1995:[48] 1995

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

2010

On 18 May 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.[17]

Bharti Airtel wins broadband spectrum in four circles: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata for Rs. 3314.36 crores.[23] On 18 November 2010, Bharti Airtel announced a re-branding campaign wherein, they would be referred as airtel, with a new logo.[49] On 20 December 2010, Airtel launched its new identity for Bangladesh subscribers.[50] On 23 December 2010, Airtel opened its first underground terrestrial fibre optic cable built in alliance with China Telecom.[51]

2011

On 24 January 2011, Airtel announced the launch of its 3G services in India.[52] On 31 January 2011, Airtel launched wallet service - Airtel Money in the millennium city of Gurgaon.[53] On 18 February 2011, Airtel Digital TV brings much awaited cricket world cup in High Definition.[54] On 14 March 2011, Bharti Airtel announced the launch of Airtel Broadband TV.[55] On 11 April 2011, Bharti Airtel and Apple to bring iphone 4 to India.[56] On 18 April 2011, Bharti Airtel enters into an exclusive partnership with leading photo service-Zoomin.com.[57] On 21 April 2011, All Airtel digital TV HD set top boxes are 3D ready![58] On 17 May 2011, Airtel launches the worlds first USSD-based Facebook access service in India Facebook by Fonetwish.[59] On 2 June 2011, Bharti Airtel to offer On-demand online movie viewing services- launches Airtel Movies[60] On 16 June 2011, Airtel digital TV launches iKisaan Worlds first interactive service in Hindi.[61] On 27 June 2011, Airtel 3G shrinks the world with launch of international video calling services.[62]

On 7 July 2011, Bharti Airtel announces new organisation structure for its India and South Asia operations.[63] On 18 July 2011, Airtel digital TV adds 41 new channels.[64] On 25 July 2011, Bharti Airtel Launches Facebook For Every Phone.[65] On 16 August 2011, Wide availability of Airtel Service Centers in Rajasthan creates easy touch points for customer service.[66] On 18 August 2011, 2011 FORMULA 1 AIRTEL GRAND PRIX OF INDIA set to flag off Indias Formula 1 dreams.[67] On 25 August 2011, Airtel dedicates 4th Airtel Delhi Half Marathon to Friends.[68] On 26 August 2011, Airtel money customers in Delhi-NCR can now enjoy special dining & wellness privileges.[69] On 29 August 2011, India gears up for the 2011 FORMULA 1 AIRTEL GRAND PRIX OF INDIA excitement.[70] On 19 September 2011, Bharti Airtel announces GO! GO! GOAL Contest 2011 for football lovers.[71] On 22 September 2011, Airtel digital TV brings the celebrated TV series Johnny Test to India.[72] On 26 September 2011, Airtel Youth Star kicks off Friends Dance Carnival in Andhra Pradesh.[73] On 12 October 2011, Bharti Airtel launches Formula 1TM Race Pack in 8 major cities across India. Subscribe and win 2 A-seat tickets for the event.[74] On 17 October 2011, Now enjoy high speed browsing when you need it most with Airtel Smartbytes.[75] On 28 October 2011, 2011 Formula 1 Airtel Grand Prix of India Winner's Trophy Revealed.[76] On 1 November 2011, Airtel digital TV now has 11 True HD channels,Expands total channel count to 262.[77] On 10 November 2011, Bharti Airtel implements Customer Experience Management platform (CEM).[78] On 11 November 2011, Bharti Airtel named amongst the top 25 companies for leaders globally.[79] On 25 November 2011, Mr. Sharlin Thayil, CEO Bharti Airtel, AP launches iPhone 4S in Hyderabad. On 29 November 2011, Now enjoy the AIR FM experience on Airtel digital TV.[80]

On 30 November 2011, Airtel & Healthfore launch Mediphone: a service that allows you to access a doctor for medical advice from your mobile phone.[81] On 1 December 2011, Airtel introduces Indias first free mobile access to Twitter.[82] On 8 December 2011, Airtel Mobitude 2011 captures preferences of over 170 million plus mobile users.[83] On 12 December 2011, Bharti Airtel recognized for the delivery of best network services with customer focus at Telecom Centre of Excellence Awards.[84] On 14 December 2011, Mobitude 2011 reveals 21% of Facebook users in India access the social networking site via Airtel mobile.[85] On 21 December 2011, Airtel launches exciting recharge offers for mobile customers in Rajasthan.[86]

2012

On 11 January 2012, Airtel launched Comedy FM on Airtel Mobile.[87] On 12 January 2012, Airtel launches all new BBM Plan @ Rs 129 per month for its postpaid mobile customers on BlackBerry. [88] On 23 January 2012, Airtel prepaid mobile recharge made easier with netbanking at www.airtel.in[89] On 30 January 2012, Airtel digital TV redefines learning for kids with the launch of iKidsworld. [90] On 31 January 2012, Now greet callers with a Hello Tune personalized with your name.[91] On 2 February 2012, Airtel launched Vh1 Radio GAGA powered by Hungama on Airtel Mobile.[92] On 3 February 2012, Indias largest collection of Hello Tunes is now available online for Airtel mobile customers. [93]

[edit]See

also

Companies portal

Airtel Africa Airtel Bangladesh Airtel Sri Lanka Bharti Airtel on Wikinvest

[edit]References

1.

a b c d

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