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 covers 71% of the current population (as of 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]
[edit] 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"
[edit] BlackBerry
On 19th October 2004 Reliance 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).
[edit] iPhone 3G
As of 22nd August 2008, the Apple iPhone 3G is available in India on Airtel and Vodafone.
[edit] 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
[edit] 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 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]
[edit] Subscriber Base
The Airtel subscriber base according to COAI - Cellular Operator Association of India as of May 2008[7] was:
- 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
The total is 67,425,935 or 32.81% of the total 205,460,762 GSM mobile connections in India till May 2008.
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