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Introduction

Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian multinationaltelecommunications services company headquartered in New Delhi, India. It operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa, and the Channel Islands. Airtel has a GSM network in all countries in which it operates, providing 2G, 3G and 4G services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the world's second largest mobile telecommunications company by subscribers, with [5] over 275 million subscribers across 20 countries as of July 2013. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, [6] with 192.22 million subscribers as of August 2013. Airtel is the Second largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile. 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 [7] Certification. 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. Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the 'minutes factory' model of low cost and high volumes. The strategy has since been [8] copied by several operators. Its networkbase stations, microwave links, etc.is maintained [9] [10] by Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Network whereas IT support is provided by IBM, and transmission towers are [11] maintained by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in India). 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 [12] provide low call rates of 1/minute (US$0.02/minute). 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 Alcatel-Lucentfor setting up an Internet Protocol access network (mobile backhaul) across the country. This would help consumers access internet at faster speed and high [13] quality internet browsing on mobile handsets.

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 [14] operations of the Kuwait based Zain Telecom. In March 2012, Airtel launched a mobile operation in Rwanda.

Airtel launched "Hello Tunes", a Caller ring back tone service (CRBT), in July 2004 becoming to the first operator in [15] India to do so. The Airtel theme song, composed by A.R. Rahman, was the most popular tune on that year. On 26 February 2013, Airtel announced that it had deployed Ericssons Mobile Broadband Charging (MBC) solution and completely modernized its prepaid services for its subscribers in India. As a part of the deal, Ericssons multi service MBC suite allows prepaid customers to have personalized profile based data charging plans. Prepaid customers will be able to customize their data plans across mobility, fixed line and broadband by cross bundling across multiple domains (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE & Wi-Fi). It will also offer flexible multi service charging in geographical [16] redundant mode, making Airtel the first operator to implement geographical redundancy at such a large scale. In May 2013, Bharti Infotel paid Rs 50,000 as compensation to a customer "for unfair trade practices". The customer alleged that the company continued to aggressively demand payment despite customer requests for disconnection of [17] service.

Rebranding[edit]

Logo used by Airtel till November 2010

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, The Brand Union, [91] the new logo is the letter 'a' in lowercase, with 'airtel' written in lowercase under the logo. 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.

Mobile Services[edit]
Airtel operates in all telecom circles of India. Its network is present in 5,121 census towns and 457,053 non-census [26] towns and villages, covering approximately 86.6% of the countrys population as of S eptember 2012. Airtel is the [27] largest operator in rural India with 83.82 million subscribers as of April 2013. Airtel is the 6 most valued brand according to an annual survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic [28][29] Times in 2010.
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3G[edit]
On 18 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel paid the Indian government 122.95 billion (US$2.0 billion) for spectrum in 13 circles, the most amount spent by an operator in that auction. Airtel won 3G licences in 13 telecom circles of India:Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (West), [30] Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, and Jammu & Kashmir. Airtel also operates 3G services in Maharastra & Goa and Kolkata circles 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. Airtel is

fined by DoT 350 Crores for not stopping offering 3G Services through Roaming Pacts outside its Licensed Zones in Seven Circles. On 20 September 2010, Bharti Airtel said that it had 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 would plan, design, deploy and maintain 3GHSPA (third generation, high speed packet access) networks in 13 telecom circles where the company had won 3G licences. While Airtel awarded network contracts for seven 3G circles to Ericsson India, NSN would manage networks in three circles. Chinese telecom equipment [31] vendor Huawei Technologies was introduced as the third partner for three circles. 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 Tata [32] Docomo and Reliance Communications. On 27 January 2011, Airtel launched 3G in Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. On 27 July 2011, 3G services were launched in Kerala's 3 largest cities [33] Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. Airtel 3G services are available in 200 cities through its network and in 500 cities through intra-circle roaming arrangements with other operators. Airtel had about 5.4 million 3G customers of which 4 million are 3G data [26] customers as of September 2012.

4G[edit]
On 19 May 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in India ended. Airtel paid 33.1436 [34] billion(US$530 million) for spectrum in 4 circles: Maharashtra and Goa, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata. The company was allocated 20 MHz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 GHz frequency band. Airtel's TD-LTE network is built and operated by ZTE in Kolkata and Punjab,Huawei in Karnataka, and Nokia Siemens Networks in Maharashtra and [35] Goa. On 10 April 2012, Airtel launched 4G services through dongles and modems using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata, becoming the first company in India to offer 4G services. The Kolkata launch was followed by launches [36] [37] in Bangalore (7 May 2012), Pune (18 October 2012), and Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula (25 March [38] 2013). Airtel obtained 4G licences and spectrum in the telecom circles of Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai after acquiring Wireless Business Services Private Limited, a joint venture founded by Qualcomm, which had won BWA [39] spectrum in those circles in the 4G spectrum auction. Airtel launched 4G services on mobile from February 2014. The first city to get the service was Bangalore. Airtel provides voice services for its TD-LTE subscribers through its existing GSM network, which made it the first operator in India to combine voice with TD-LTE services through GSM network. Airtel selected Nokia Siemens Networks to deploy its Circuit Switched FallBack (CSFB) voice solution in Airtel's TD-LTE network in Pune. With CSFB, the network can transfer customers to GSM platform to make and receive voice calls while retaining the TD-LTE network [42] for data services. Airtel had 20,000 4G subscribers as of March 2013.
[43] [40][41]

WiFi[edit]
Airtel has plans to launch WiFi services in India. It intends to start offering WiFi services in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore in initial phase. All plans will be on secure wireless broadband internet with unlimited usage and will be session or time based. Users can use the service by finding a hotspot, selecting 'airtel WiFi Zone', activating the voucher and then login to start browsing. Airtel intends to partner with establishments to set up hotspots which will be termed WiFi Hangout for an establishment owner and WiFi Partner for the cafe and restaurant owners. Airtel WiFi Partners can offer services at [44] zero investments and can earn commission on every WiFi session sold.

airtel Money[edit]
Airtel has started a new mCommerce platform called Airtel Money in collaboration with Infosys and SmartTrust (now Giesecke & Devrient). The platform was launched on 5 April 2012, at Infosys' headquarters in Bangalore. Using Airtel [45] Money, users can transfer money, pay bills and perform other financial transactions directly on the mobile phone.

SmartDrive[edit]
SmartDrive is navigation app exclusive to Airtel customers. The app features voice-based turn by turn navigation, real time information update on traffic, approximate time of the travel on the basis of the traffic situation on the various routes and also lets users see their location on the map and plan the journey accordingly. It also suggests the subscriber an alternate route in case of traffic congestion on the normal route. According to Airtel, SmartDrive calculates the traffic on the basis of the number of GPS devices used on a particular road, their average speed, as well as historical trends of traffic on that route. SmartDrive also allows users to search for points of interest like restaurants, theatres and shopping malls. The app also allows users to keep a record of all trips they make when using voice navigation for later reference through the 'Trip Recorder' feature, Wikipedia information of places for which information is available and the ability to add frequently visited locations to favorites, in addition to weather information about the place. Airtel will offer navigation at 10 per day or 99 per month. Live traffic will be cost 3 per day or 49 per month. Search and map viewer are available for free. The costs do not include data charges. Airtel states in SmartDrive's FAQ that data is only used when the user performs searches or calculates routes. The app is developed by Wisepilot, a mobile navigation solutions provider and uses Navteq Maps for location and [46] [47] traffic info. It was launched on 12 September 2012. At the time of launch, it was available only [48] [49] in Bangalore, Mumbai and NCR. Services are currently available in Chennai. Service will be expanded to Pune and Hyderabad by December 2012.

Network Experience Centre[edit]


Airtel has a Network Experience Centre (NEC) which observes end to end customer experience, in near real time, along with the standard network elements on Airtel's operations. The NEC is located in Manesar, Haryana and went live on 31 October 2012. It is the first such facility in India and will be able to monitor Airtel's network performance across mobile, fixed line, broadband, DTH, M-Commerce, enterprise services, International Cable Systems and internet peering points from a single location. It will monitor all Airtel and partner NOCs. In case of an emergency, the NEC will enable the operator to prioritize actions to restore normalcy and reduce resolution time. The NEC houses a video wall with 3600 square feet of solid state LED screen to monitor Airtel's telecom network. This is the world's biggest video wall for a telecom operator. Each cube in this wall is 1.6mx1.2 m and there are 175 [50] cubes arranged in a 25x7 matrix. The clear span of the roof is 49 m x 18 m and the beams, which are fireproof and about 8 feet deep, have been specially designed to hold the structure without columns. The NEC was designed specifically to be used as a command center in case of national emergencies and natural catastrophes. The facility is [51] earthquake proof and also provides for a single control of command and a fully redundant technology layout.

iPhone[edit]
The iPhone 3G was rolled out in India in 2008 by Airtel. However, high prices and contract bonds discouraged consumers and it was not as successful as the iPhone is in other markets of the world. Airtel introduced the iPhone [52] 4 on 27 May 2011 and the iPhone 5 on 2 November 2012.

Telemedia[edit]

Under the Telemedia segment, Airtel provides broadband internet access through DSL, internet leased lines as well as MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) solutions, as well asIPTV and fixed line telephone services. 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. As of September 2012, Airtel [26] provides Telemedia services to 3.3 million customers in 87 cities. As on 30 November 2012, Airtel had 1.39 million [53] broadband subscribers. Airtel Broadband provides broadband and IPTV services. Airtel provides both capped as well as unlimited download plans. However, Airtel's unlimited plans are subject to free usage policy (FUP), which reduces speed after the customer crosses a certain data usage limit. In some plans, Airtel provides only 256kbit/s beyond FUP, which is lower [54][55] than the TRAI specified limit of half the subscriber's original speed. The maximum speed available for home users is 16Mbit/s. In May 2012, Airtel Broadband and some other Indian ISPs temporarily blocked file sharing websites such as vimeo.commegavideo.com, thepiratebay.se etc. with out giving any legal information to the customers. The block [56] was due to a Madras High Courtissued John Doe order taken by Chennai-based Copyright Lab. In response to a petition filed by Vinay B, a resident of Shimoga,Karnataka, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum ordered Airtel to pay 20,000 to the petitioner for "deficiency in internet service" thereby causing mental agony to the complainant. "By misinterpreting the Madras High Court order, Airtel blocked entire websites. It is needless to say [57][58] that the companys actions amount to deficiency in service as well as unf air trade practice," said the forum.

Digital Television[edit]
Main article: Airtel digital TV The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV services across India under the brand name Airtel digital [59] TV. It started services on 9 October 2008 and had about 7.9 million customers at the end of December 2012.

Enterprise[edit]
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.

Mobile data service[edit]


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.

Enterprise business solutions[edit]


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.

Android-based tablet[edit]
Beetel Teletech Ltd., a unit of Bharti Enterprises Ltd., on 18 August launched a 9,999 ($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 [60] cheap computing devices in the world's fastest-growing and second-largest mobile phone market.

International Operations[edit]
Africa[edit]
Main article: Airtel Africa Airtel Africa is a subsidiary of Indian telecommunications company Airtel, that operates in 17 countries across Africa. It operates aGSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3G depending upon the country of operation In March 2010, Bharti struck a deal to buy the Kuwaiti 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. On 11 August 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire a 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 [61] market of Seychelles. 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 [62] 2,000 km undersea high speed link to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Bangladesh[edit]
Main article: Airtel Bangladesh Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. is a GSM-based cellular operator in Bangladesh. Airtel is the sixth mobile phone carrier to enter the Bangladesh market, and originally launched commercial operations under the brand name "Warid Telecom" on May 10, 2007. Warid Telecom International LLC, an Abu Dhabi based consortium, sold a majority 70% stake in [63] the company to India's Bharti Airtel Limited for US$300 million. Bharti Airtel made a fresh investment of US$300 million to rapidly expand the operations of Warid Telecom and have management and board control of the company. This is the largest investment in Bangladesh by an Indian company. Dhabi Group continues as a strategic partner retaining 30% shareholding and has its nominees on the Board of the Company.

Sri Lanka[edit]
Main article: Bharti Airtel Lanka Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited, the third largest mobile operator in the world, with over 240 million mobile customers as of December 2011. Bharti Airtel has been featured in Forbes Asia's Fab 50 list, rated amongst the best performing companies in the world in the BusinessWeek IT 100 list 2007, and voted as India's most innovative company in a survey by The Wall Street Journal Airtel Lanka commenced commercial operations of services on 13 January 2009. Granted a licence in 2007 in accordance with the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Act No. 25 of 1991, it is also a registered company under the Board of Investment Sri Lanka. Under the license, the company provides digital mobile services to Sri Lanka. This is inclusive of voice telephony, voice mail, data services and GSM based services. All of these services are provided under the airtel brand.
[64]

Channel Islands: Jersey and Guernsey[edit]


Main article: Airtel-Vodafone

On 1 May 2007, Jersey Airtel and Guernsey Airtel, both wholly owned subsidiaries of the Bharti Group, announced [65][66] they would launch mobile services in the British Crown Dependency islands of Jersey and Guernsey under the brand name Airtel-Vodafone after signing an agreement with Vodafone. Airtel-Vodafone operates a 3G network in Jersey and Guernsey.

Subscriber Base[edit]
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 [5] countries and Indian Telemedia services and Digital services subscribers.

India[edit]
The Airtel wireless subscriber base according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as of November 2012 was: Metros

Delhi 9,105,718 Mumbai 3,58,7060 Kolkata 3,606,616 Chennai 3,428,293

"A" Circle

Andhra Pradesh 18,041,904 Gujarat 6,927,459 Karnataka 16,044,964 Maharashtra 9,849,973 Tamil Nadu 10,094,293

"B" Circle

Haryana 2,267,166 Kerala 3,393,868 Madhya Pradesh 9,675,239 Punjab 6,851,338 Rajasthan 14,385,762 Uttar Pradesh (East) 15,105,455 Uttar Pradesh (West) 6,556,052 West Bengal 9,084,371

"C" Circle

Assam 3,809,218 Bihar 18,527,460 Himachal Pradesh 1,915,405 Jammu and Kashmir 2,300,268 North East India (excluding Assam) 2,551,134 Orissa 6,696,681

Airtel is the market leader in India with about 183 million wireless subscribers in India or about 20.62% market share at the end of November 2012. In 2013 version of the The Brand Trust Report published by Trust Research Advisory, Airtel is placed as the most trusted mobile operator brand in India.

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