WATCH OUT HERE.....: AirTel.... Express Yourself

For the information technology, see Airtel (FBI).Bharti Enterprises (Airtel)

Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (BTVL) is India's largest Telecom Business operator with more than 64.4 million subscribers as of April 2008.[1] It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its TELECOM services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Mittal. The company also provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. The company complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services with national and international long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The company provides end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers 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 station.

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises. The Bharti Group, has a diverse business portfolio and has created global brands in the telecommunication sector. Bharti has recently forayed into retail business as Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. under a MoU with Wal-Mart for the cash & carry business. It has successfully launched an international venture with EL Rothschild Group to export fresh agri products exclusively to markets in Europe and USA and has launched Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd under a joint venture with AXA, world leader in financial protection and wealth management.

Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited, India’s largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider with a footprint in all the 23 telecom circles. Bharti Airtel since its inception has been at the forefront of technology and has steered the course of the telecom sector in the country with its world class products and services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBU’s) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services & Enterprise Services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles while the Airtel Telemedia Services business offers broadband & telephone services in 94 cities. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national & international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand.

Airtel

Airtel is a brand of telecommunication services in India operated by Bharti Airtel.

Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India in terms of number of subscribers. Bharti Airtel owns the Airtel brand and provides the following services under the brand name Airtel: Mobile Services (using GSM Technology), Broadband & Telephone Services (Fixed line, Internet Connectivity(DSL) and Leased Line), Long Distance Services and Enterprise Services (Telecommunications Consulting for corporates). It has presence in all 23 circles of the country and has the covers 71% of the current population till FY07.

Leading international telecommunication companies such as Vodafone and SingTel held partial stakes in Bharti Airtel.

In April 2006 Bharti Global Limited was awarded a telecommunications licence in Jersey in the Channel Islands by the local telecommunications regulator the JCRA. In September 2006 the Office of Utility Regulation in Guernsey awarded Guernsey Airtel with a mobile telecommunications licence. In May 2007 Jersey Airtel and Guernsey Airtel announced the launch of a relationship with Vodafone for island mobile subscribers. In July 2007, Bharti Airtel signed an MoU with Nokia-Siemens for a 900 million dollar expansion of its mobile and fixed network.[2] In August 2007, the company announced it will be launching a customized version of Google search engine that will provide an 'array of services' to its broadband customers.

In March 2008, Bharti Airtel will roll out third generation services in Sri Lanka in association with Singtel. This is because Singapore-based Asian telecom major Singtel, which owns a little over 30% in Bharti Airtel, is a major player in the 3G space as it has already third generation networks in several markets across Asia.[3]

Touchtel

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"

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Apple's iPhone 3G

Apple has announced launch of its new iPhone in US and other 25 countries on July 11th 2008, it is soon to be launched in India as well with Bharati.

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BlackBerry

On 19th 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).

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Awards and recognition

2006
Wireless service provider of the year 2005 at the Frost and Sulivan Asia-Pacific ICT awards [4]
Competitive service provider of the year 2005 at the Frost and Sulivan Asia-Pacific ICT awards

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In the news

On February 12, 2007 Vodafone sold its 5.6% stake in AirTel back to AirTel for US $1.6 billion; and purchased a controlling stake in rival Hutchison Essar.

In its monthly press release[citation needed], following statistics have been presented for end of April 2007.
Bharti Airtel added the highest ever net addition of 5.3 million customers in a single quarter (Q4-FY0607) and also the highest ever net addition of 18 million total subscribers in 2006-07
The company will invest up to $3.5 billion this fiscal (07-08) in network expansion.
It has an installed base of 40,000 cellsites and 59% population coverage
After the proposed network expansion, an additional 30,000 towers will result in the company achieving 70% population coverage
Bharti has over 39 million users as on March 31, 2007
It has set a target of 125 million subscribers by 2010
Prepaid customers account for 88.5% of Bharti’s total subscriber base, an increase from 82.7% a year ago
ARPU has dropped to Rs 406
Non-voice revenues, (SMS, voice mail, call management, hello tunes and Airtel Live) constituted 10% of total revenues during Q4, lower than 10.7% in the Q4 of the previous year
Blended monthly minutes of usage per customer in Q4 was at 475 minutes
Has completed 100% verification of its subscribers and in the process disconnected three lakh subscribers
Bharti Airtel’s enterprise Services, President - David is busy connecting India to Europe. David announced the building of 15,000 km 3.84 Terrabit OFC sub-marince cable system connecting Europe [London] to India via the Middle East. The project is known as Europe India gateway [EIG] and is expected to cost $700 million, which is to be completed by Q2-2010. Alcatel Lucent and Tyco are the telecom vendors for the project.

Members in the EIG consortium include - AT&T, BT, C&W, Djibouti Telecom, Du, Gibtelecom, IAM, Libyan Telecom, MTN Group Ltd., Omantel, PT Comunicacoes-S.A, Saudi Telecom Company, Telecom Egypt, Telkom SA Ltd, and Verizon Business.

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, more subscribers and broader geographic coverage.[5] However, the talks fell apart as MTN group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company [6]

Subscriber Base

The Airtel subscriber base according to COAI - Cellular Operator Association of India as of May 2008[1] was:
Delhi - 4,055,704
Mumbai - 2,468,016
Chennai - 1,823,532
Kolkata - 1,852,838
Maharashtra & Goa - 4,345,945
Gujarat - 3,004,824
Andhra Pradesh - 6,516,332
Karnataka - 7,316,500
Tamil Nadu - 4,218,705
Kerala - 1,703,298
Punjab - 3,239,200
Haryana - 1,067,990
Uttar Pradesh (West) - 1,624,001
Uttar Pradesh (East) - 3,897,278
Rajasthan - 4,242,006
Madhya Pradesh - 3,084,776
West Bengal & Andaman and Nicobar - 2,106,163
Himachal Pradesh - 809,829
Bihar - 4,912,900
Orissa - 1,911,070
Assam - 939,746
North Eastern States - 585,213
Jammu & Kashmir - 1,100,069