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Bharti has always believed in creating strong partnerships with its joint
venture partners. Today SingTel, Singapore and Warburg Pincus, USA are
Bharti’s lead joint venture partners. Bharti’s other joint venture partners
include Telia, Sweden, AIF Funds Management Ltd., Mauritius,
International Finance Corporation, USA and New York Life International,
USA.
Bharti has many firsts to its credit, ranging from being the first cellular service in
Delhi, first Indian company to provide comprehensive telecom services outside
India (Seychelles), fastest growing VSAT company in India, and first multinational
Internet Service Provider. Bharti also created history with the launch of India’s
first private sector fixed line service in the state of Madhya Pradesh, which is
today India's largest private basic telephone service.
AirTel, the premier mobile service brand from Bharti has defined the cellular
business through continuous marketing and technological innovations,
consistently setting new benchmarks for the Indian mobile industry. AirTel has
the unique distinction of being chosen India’s best cellular service four years in a
row by receiving the Techies award in 1997, 1998, 1999 & 2000.
The most significant development in Bharti’s growth drive has been it’s recent
wins in the 4th cellular licence bidding process. Bharti has today emerged as
India’s largest mobile services company with a footprint that spans across 15
states, 1.8 million sq. k.m. covering 700 million people. Bharti plans to offer
nationwide broadband & long distance services in addition to providing world-
class fixed line services in Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu & Madhya
Pradesh. Today Bharti’s telecom services footprint encompasses the entire
telecom value chain and runs from Himachal Pradesh in the north to Tamil Nadu
in the south, from Mumbai in the west to Kolkata in the east. Today, Bharti is
India’s largest telecom services company in the private sector.
1995
- Bharti Cellular launched cellular services'AirTel'in Delhi
1997
- British Telecom acquired a 21.05% equity interest in Bharti Cellular
- Bharti Telecom and British Telecom formed a 51% : 49% joint venture, Bharti
BT, for providing VSAT services
1998
- Bharti Telecom and British Telecom formed a 51% : 49% joint venture, Bharti BT
Internet for providing Internet services
- First Indian private fixed-line services launched in Indore in the Madhya Pradesh
circle on June 4, 1998 by Bharti Telenet thereby ending fixed-line services
monopoly of DoT (now BSNL)
2001
- Bharti Telesonic entered into a joint venture, Bharti Aquanet, with SingTel for
establishing a submarine cable landing station at Chennai
- Bharti Cellular acquired a 100% equity interest in Bharti Mobitel (formerly Spice
Cell ), the cellular services provider in Kolkata
- Bharti Telesonic entered into a license agreement with the DoT to provide
national long distance services across India
- Bharti Telesonic launched national long distance services under the brand
name of IndiaOne
- Bharti Telenet launched fixed line services in Haryana under the brand name of
TouchTel.
2002
- Comes out with issue of 18.53 crore equity shares through book
building route with a floor price of Rs 45 per share, received bid
for 18.55 crore shares. Through the issue, it becomes the first
company in India to come out with 100% book building issue
-Shares listed on BSE, NSE and DSE, opens at 11% premium to its
issue price of Rs 45
-Enters into a 5-year agreement with Escotel and ETL of the Escorts
group to contract leased line connectivity for its cellular operations
2003
-Offers 0-1-2, a new cellular package for the customers, which means
zero charges on incoming calls, Re 1 on mobile-to-mobile outgoing
calls, Rs 2 on mobile-to-mobile STD calls
-Signs MoU to join the South East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe
4 (SEA-ME-WE-4) consortium along with 15 other global telecom
operators.
-Bharti Tele-Ventures has struck a deal with Shyam Telecom to buy out
the latter's 67.5 per cent stake in cellular services company Hexacom
for Rs 430 crore.
2005
-Bharti Tele-Ventures launches under sea cable system
2006
-Bharti Airtel Ltd has informed that Microsoft and the Company
announced a strategic partnership that will offer a range of software
and services for small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India.
-Bharti Airtel on Feb 11, has been awarded QCI-DL Shah National Award
on Economics of Quality.
-Bharti Airtel Ltd on April 01, 2007, has announced the reduction in
International Long Distance Tariffs (ISD) for all its mobile
customers in India.
2008
- Bharti Airtel Ltd on February 13, 2008 has announced that it has
achieved the 60 million customer mark. This landmark has catapulted
Bharti Airtel into the club of top mobile operators in the world in
terms of subscriber base. The 60 million customer base covers mobile
as well as fixed line and broadband customers.
- Bharti Airtel tied up with US-based Apple Inc to bring the popular
GSM-based iPhone in the country.
- Bharti Airtel Ltd has forged a technology alliance with Infosys
Technologies Ltd to launch its Direct-to-Home (DTH) television
services. Infosys, through its digital convergence platform, will
offer a suite of products including devices, application servers and
interactive applications for Airtel's DTH services.
2009
- In order to create products and services for the small, medium and
large enterprises, Bharti Airtel and Cisco announced a strategic
business alliance. The alliance would combine the strengths of
Airtel's network service and Cisco' Internet Protocol (IP)
technologies.
2010
Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Airtel, has spread its operations to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Africa and
Seychelles. In Africa, where it acquired operations of mobile carrier Zain
- Bharti Airtel submitted its bid for 3G spectrum, the auction for
which starts from April 9.
Bharti Airtel customers can deposit cash in their “airtel money” accounts at
retail locations, then make payments at retail sites and pay utilities using
their mobile phones. The merchants and utilities have to be on the Bharti
Airtel network, and be part of the money transfer program.
On 27 February 2011, Bharti Airtel launched its speech recognition based service,
'One Number, One Voice'.[34]
India’s top mobile phone firm Bharti Airtel said it will award call centre
contracts for its African operations to IBM, Tech Mahindra and Spanco,
marking the second significant step in replicating its hugely-successful
outsourcing model in that continent. five-year contract was worth around
$500 million, with IBM and Spanco sharing most of the spoils.
Other stakeholders in Bharti Airtel include Sony-Ericsson, Nokia - and Sing Tel,
with whom they hold a strategic alliance. This means that the business has access
to knowledge and technology from other parts of the telecommunications world.
The company has covered the entire Indian nation with its network. This has
underpinned its large and rising customer base
Bharti Airtel is embarking on another joint venture with Vodafone Essar and Idea
Cellular to create a new independent tower company called Indus Towers. This
new business will control more than 60% of India's network towers. IPTV is
another potential new service that could underpin the company's long-term
strategy.
The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic
business units (SBU's) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services & Enterprise
Services.