Bharti Airtel

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Bharti Airtel

Industry Founded Founder(s) Headquarters Area served

Telecommunications 7 July 1995 Sunil Bharti Mittal New Delhi, India South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands Sunil Bharti Mittal
(Chairman) and (MD)

Key people

Fixedline Telephony Mobile Telephony Products Broadband Internet Digital Television IT services Revenue Profit 416.03 billion (US$7.53 billion) (2012)[1] 57.3 billion (US$1.04 billion) (2012)[1] 1,007.85 billion (US$18.24 billion)
(2011)
[1]

Total assets

Employees Parent

20,675 (December 2011)[1] Bharti Enterprises (52.7%)[2][3]

SingTel (15.57%)[2][3] Vodafone (4.4%) Airtel Africa Subsidiaries Airtel Digital TV Airtel Sri Lanka Airtel Bangla Website www.airtel.com

Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is the largest 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 22G, 33G and 44G services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the world's third-largest mobile telecommunications company with over 261 million subscribers across 20 countries as of August 2012.[4] It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 200 million subscribers.[5] Airtel is the third largest incountry 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 and subscription 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 Cisco Gold Certification.[6] 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 networkbase stations, microwave links, etc.is maintained by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Huawei,[7] and business support is provided by IBM,[8] and transmission towers are maintained by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in India).[9] 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, which allowed Airtel to provide low call rates of 1/minute (US$0.02/minute).[10] During the last financial year (200910), Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the tele-media business. On 31 May 2012, Bharti Airtel awarded the three year contract to AlcatelLucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network (mobile backhaul) across the country.This would help consumers access internet at faster speed and high quality internet browsing on mobile handsets.[11]

[1edit] History
Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Mittal was in an agreement with Germany's Siemens to manufacture push-button telephone models for the Indian market. In 1986, 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. By the early 1990s, Sunil Mittal had also launched the country's first fax machines and its first cordless telephones. In 1992, Mittal won a bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In 1995, 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. This expansion allowed it to offer voice services all across India. In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel acquired the African operations of the Kuwait based Zain Telecom.In March 2012,Airtel launched a mobile operation in Rwanda. Today, Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India and the third largest in the world.

[2edit] Organisational Structure

The organisational structure that existed until recently concentrated on the hierarchy of the operations inside the company as a whole. The structure depicts the corresponding operation/region of different in-charges and it didn't hold anyone responsible for each of its services. So, the company found it better to restructure its organizational chart. The transformed organisational structure will have two distinct Customer Business Units (CBU) with clear focus on 2B2C (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 unitsMobile, 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. Coverage map of Bharti Airtel across 20 countries Airtel is the third largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and has a commercial presence in 20 countries and the Channel Islands. Airtel Africa, which operates in 17 African countries: 1. 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 operates in the following countries: Site Airtel Bangladesh Bangladesh Burkina Airtel Burkina Faso Faso Airtel Chad Chad Democratic Airtel DRC Country Remarks Airtel Bangladesh had about 5.1 million customers at the end of June 2011.[12] Airtel Burkina Faso is the dominant player with 1,433,000 customers representing 50% market share.[13] Airtel Chad is the #1 operator with 69% market share.[13] Airtel is the market leader with almost 5 million customers at the end of 2010.

Republic of the Congo Airtel Gabon has 829,000 customers and its market share stood at 61%.[14] Airtel Ghana had about 1.76 million customers at the end of Ghana Airtel Ghana 2010.[15] Airtel is the market leader with almost 152.5 million customers at Airtel India the end of 2010.[15] Airtel Kenya is the second largest operator and has 4 million Airtel Kenya Kenya customers.[16] Airtel holds second place in the mobile telecom market in Airtel Madagascar Madagascar Madagascar, has a 39% market share and over 1.4 million customers.[13] Malawi Airtel Malawi Airtel Malawi is the market leader with a market share of 72%.[13] Airtel Niger Airtel Niger is the market leader with a 68% market share.[13] Niger Nigeria Airtel Nigeria Republic Airtel Congo B Airtel Congo is the market leader with a 55% market share.[13] of the Congo Rwanda Airtel Rwanda Airtel launched services in Rwanda on 30 March 2012.[17] Airtel is the leading comprehensive telecommunications services Airtel providers with over 55% market share of mobile market in Seychelles Seychelles Seychelles.[18] Airtel Sierra Sierra Leone Leone Airtel Sri Airtel Sri Lanka commenced operations on 12 January 2009. It had Sri Lanka about 1.8 million mobile customers at the end of 2010.[15] Lanka Tanzania Airtel Tanzania Airtel Tanzania is the market leader with a 38% market share.[13] Airtel Uganda stands as the #2 operator with a market share of Uganda Airtel Uganda 38%.[13] Zambia Airtel Zambia Channel Islands : Airtel operates in the Channel Islands under the brand name Airtel Jersey and Airtel Vodafone Vodafone through an agreement with Vodafone. Gabon Airtel Gabon Guernsey Jersey and Guernsey are British Crown Dependencies. They are not independent countries. Therefore, Airtel's
countries of operation is considered to be 20.

Airtel has nationwide presence, and is the 6th most valued brand according to an annual survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic Times in 2010.[19][20] 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 3iPhone 3G was rolled out in India in 2008 by Airtel and Vodafone. 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 4iPhone 4 was introduced on May 27, 2011 by Airtel and Aircel. [6edit] 3G On May 18, 2010, 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel will have to pay the Indian government 122.95 billion (US$2.23 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, and Jammu & Kashmir.[21] Airtel also operates 3G services in Maharastra, Goa, Kanpur and Kolkata through an agreement with Vodafone and in Gujarat through an agreement with Idea. This gives Airtel a 3G presence in 15 out of 22 circles in India. On September 20, 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 3GHSPA (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.[22] On January 24, 2011, Airtel launched 3G services in Bangalore, Karnatakaits 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.[23] On January 27, 2011, Airtel launched 3G in Chennai and Coimbatore. On July 27, 2011 Airtel launched 3G in three major cities in Kerala (Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut).[24] 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.[25] Airtel had about 3 million 3G subscribers as of May 2011.[26]

[edit] Rest of the World

[edit] Africa
Main article: Airtel Africa

[edit] Bangladesh
Main article: Airtel Bangla

[edit] Sri Lanka

Main article: Bharti Airtel Lanka

[edit] Channel Islands: Jersey and Guernsey

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

of Jersey and Guernsey[45][46] 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 243.336 million subscribers worldwide232.95 million in India and South Asia and 50.949 million in Africa as of the end of December 2011. The numbers include mobile services subscribers in 19 countries and Indian Telemedia services and Digital services subscribers.[4]

[edit] India
The Airtel subscriber base according to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) as of April 2012 was: "A" Circle Andhra Pradesh 18,539,788 Gujarat 7,062,371 Karnataka 15,468,507 Maharashtra 9,968,936 Tamil Nadu 10,094,293 Haryana 2,472,639 Kerala 3,574,844 Madhya Pradesh 9,728,966 Punjab 6,973,022 Rajasthan 14,546,216 Uttar Pradesh (East) 14,886,051 Uttar Pradesh (West) 6,666,880 West Bengal 9,202,693 Assam 3,759,878 Bihar 17,732,686 Himachal Pradesh 1,861,569 Jammu and Kashmir 2,112,537 North Eastern States 2,351,038 Orissa 6,460,022 Network Airtel

"B" Circle

"C" Circle

S. No. Country 1 Burkina Faso

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Bangladesh Airtel Chad Airtel Channels Islands: Jersey and Guernsey Airtel Democratic Republic of the Congo Airtel Gabon Airtel Ghana Airtel India Airtel Kenya Airtel Madagascar Airtel Malawi Airtel Niger Airtel Nigeria Airtel Republic of the Congo Airtel Sierra Leone Airtel Seychelles Airtel Sri Lanka Airtel Tanzania Airtel Uganda Airtel Bahrain Zain Iraq Zain Jordan Zain Kuwait Zain Saudi Arabia Zain Sudan Zain South Africa Cell C Egypt Mobinil

It will be extended to Airtel's operations in Asia as well as in Seychelles soon.

[edit] Sponsorship
On 9 May 2009 Airtel signed a major deal with Manchester United. 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."[56]

Airtel launches mobile money service

It allows its users to load cash on their mobile devices and spend it to pay utility bills and shop

Bharti Airtel has launched Airtel Money, a mobile wallet service, across India. The Airtel Money service, is now available across 300 key cities in India, and will allows its users to load cash on their mobile devices and spend it to pay utility bills and recharges, shop at 7,000+ merchant outlets, transact online etc. Apart from serving as an easy alternative to cash / card payment options, Airtel Money also offers customers the convenience of instant money transfer from an Airtel Money wallet to another Airtel Money wallet and bank accounts. With this, customers can now use Airtel Money to make payments and transfer money across the country.

The service was initially rolled out in Delhi NCR and Chennai in 2011. Commenting on the rollout, Sanjay Kapoor, chief executive officer - India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel said, "While an estimated 240 million people across India hold bank accounts, more than 90 per cent of country's population uses cash to pay for its daily needs. Additionally, a majority of customers continue to rely on traditional or time consuming methods like money orders and cheque remittances when it comes to transferring funds. On the other hand, the penetration of mobile telephony currently enriches the lives of over 900 million people in our country and can facilitate a paradigm shift in the way India transacts." "We see the national rollout of Airtel Money playing a pivotal role in accelerating mobile based commerce in India and look forward to further extending the availability of this service in deeper pockets of the country in weeks to come," he added. Airtel Money: There are two types of accounts under the Airtel Money service - express account and power account. Users can dial *400# from their Airtel mobile phones or sign up for the service by walking into any of the 15,000 plus Airtel Money outlets across the top 300 cities of India and submitting the required KYC documents.

Under the Express service, Airtel users can enjoy services like paying utility bills like electricity, mobile recharge, gas etc. Users of this service can spend up to Rs 10,000 daily by uploading cash on their Airtel Money account. Airtel Money Power Accounts offers lot many services than the Express account. Users with Power accounts can apart from paying utility bills can use their mobile to shop at merchant outlets. "Airtel Money will work as a convenient payment alternative to debit and credit cards in days to come for online transactions on popular websites like Flipkart, Yatra, Letsbuy and even www.airtel.in," Airtel said in a press release. "What's more - customers using Airtel Money will be able to avail exclusive discounts and attractive offers at various merchant outlets in the market - and save money as they shop," the release added. The mobile wallets are generally very secure even in case users miss place their handset. Airtel mobile wallet service can be used by any Airtel customer with any handset.