Bharti AirtelFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bharti

Type Public company

Traded as BSE: 532454 NSE : BHARTIARTL

BSE SENSEX Constituent

Industry Telecommunications

Founded 7 July 1995

Founder(s) Sunil Bharti Mittal

Headquarters New Delhi, India

Area served South Asia, Africa and the Channel

Islands

Key people Sunil Bharti Mittal

(Chairman) and (MD)

Products Fixedline Telephony

Mobile Telephony

Broadband Internet

Digital Television

IT services

Revenue     416.03 billion (US$7.53

billion)(2012)[1]

Profit     57.3 billion (US$1.04 billion)

(2012)[1]

Total assets     1,007.85 billion (US$18.24

billion)(2011)[1]

Employees 20,675 (December 2011)[1]

Parent Bharti Enterprises (52.7%)[2][3]

SingTel (15.57%)[2][3]

Vodafone (4.4%)

Subsidiaries Airtel Africa

Airtel Digital TV

Airtel Sri Lanka

Airtel Bangla

Website www.airtel.com

Bharti Airtel Limited (NSE: BHARTIARTL, BSE: 532454), commonly known asAirtel, is an 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 2G, 3G and 4G services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the world's third-largest mobile telecommunications company with over 246 million subscribers across 20 countries as of March 2012.[4] It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with over 187.30 million subscribers at the end of June 2012.[5] Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behindChina 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 televisionservices. 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 CiscoGold 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 network—base stations, microwave links, etc.—is maintained by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network andHuawei,[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 (2009–10), 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-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol across the country.This would help consumers access internet at faster speed and high qualiy internet browsing on mobile handsets.[11]

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.

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 B2C (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 units—Mobile, 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.

Worldwide presence

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.

Its area of operations include:

The Indian Subcontinent: Airtel Bangla , in Bangladesh Airtel, in India Airtel Sri Lanka , in Sri Lanka

Airtel Africa , which operates in 17 African countries: 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.

The British Crown Dependency islands of Jersey and Guernsey, under the brand name Airtel-Vodafone, through an agreement withVodafone.

Airtel operates in the following countries:

Country Site Remarks

 BangladeshAirtel Bangladesh

Airtel Bangladesh had about 5.1 million customers at the end of June 2011.[12]

 Burkina FasoAirtel Burkina Faso

Airtel Burkina Faso is the dominant player with 1,433,000 customers representing 50% market share.[13]

 Chad Airtel ChadAirtel Chad is the #1 operator with 69% market share.[13]

 Democratic Republic of the Congo Airtel DRCAirtel is the market leader with almost 5 million customers at the end of 2010.

 Gabon Airtel GabonAirtel Gabon has 829,000 customers and its market share stood at 61%.[14]

 Ghana Airtel GhanaAirtel Ghana had about 1.76 million customers at the end of 2010.[15]

 India AirtelAirtel is the market leader with almost 152.5 million customers at the end of 2010.[15]

 Kenya Airtel KenyaAirtel Kenya is the second largest operator and has 4 million customers.[16]

 MadagascarAirtel Madagascar

Airtel holds second place in the mobile telecom market in Madagascar, has a 39% market share and over 1.4 million customers.[13]

 MalawiAirtel Malawi

Airtel Malawi is the market leader with a market share of 72%.[13]

 Niger Airtel NigerAirtel Niger is the market leader with a 68% market share.[13]

 NigeriaAirtel Nigeria

 Republic of the CongoAirtel Congo B

Airtel Congo is the market leader with a 55% market share.[13]

 RwandaAirtel Rwanda

Airtel launched services in Rwanda on 30 March 2012.[17]

 SeychellesAirtel Seychelles

Airtel is the leading comprehensive telecommunications services providers with over 55% market share of mobile market in Seychelles.[18]

 Sierra LeoneAirtel Sierra Leone

 Sri LankaAirtel Sri Lanka

Airtel Sri Lanka commenced operations on 12 January 2009. It had about 1.8 million mobile customers at the end of 2010.[15]

 TanzaniaAirtel Tanzania

Airtel Tanzania is the market leader with a 38% market share.[13]

 UgandaAirtel Uganda

Airtel Uganda stands as the #2 operator with a market share of 38%.[13]

 ZambiaAirtel Zambia

Channel Islands :   Jersey and

 Guernsey†

Airtel Vodafone

Airtel operates in the Channel Islands under the brand name Airtel–Vodafone through an agreement with Vodafone.

†Jersey and Guernsey are British Crown Dependencies. They are not independent countries. Therefore, Airtel's countries of operation is considered to be 20.

India

Mobile

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 iPhone 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 iPhone 4 was introduced on May 27, 2011 by Airtel and Aircel.

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 3G–HSPA (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, 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 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]

4G

On 19 May 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in India ended. Airtel paid  33.1436 billion for spectrum in 4 circles: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata.[27] 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, Huawei in Karnataka, Ericsson in Punjab and Nokia Siemens Networksin Maharashtra.[28]

On 10 April 2012, Airtel launched 4G services using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata, becoming the first company in India to offer 4G services. Airtel launched 4G in Bangalore on 7 May 2012.[29] It will launch services next in Pune and Chandigarh.[30]

On 24 May 2012, Airtel announced an agreement to acquire a 49% stake in Qualcomm Asia Pacific (India). Qualcomm holds 4G spectrum and licenses in

Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai. As per the agreement, by the end of 2014, Airtel will assume full ownership and financial responsibility for 4G operations in these 4 circles.[31]

Airtel Money

Airtel has started a new mCommerce platform called Airtel Money with collaboration with Infosys. It is launched on April 5, 2012, in Infosys Campus of bangalore. with the help of Airtelmoney,users can transfer money,pay bills and other financial transactions using mobile phone. [32]

VAS Fraud

There has been lot of criticism about Airtel for its unauthorised VAS activation. Many of its services were activated automatically according to a complaint forum. Several thousands of users were falsely billed, for example downloading wallpaper or ringtones. In return Airtel launched STOP/START 121 services for such issues.[33][34] Alternatively, you can sign up on the "Do Not Disturb" list to avoid all telemarketing calls and SMSes.[35]

Controversy

Bharti Airtel (India), along with Loop Mobile, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Vodafone, was issued notices by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for violation of Mobile number portability (MNP) regulations. According to TRAI, they had received complaints from customers regarding unwarranted rejection of porting requests by telecom operators and  10 had been charged for a message requesting porting code through number 1900.[36]

Telemedia

The Telemedia business provides services in 89 Indian cities and consists of two brands.

Airtel Broadband provides broadband and IPTV services. Airtel provides both capped as well as unlimited download plans (extremely reduced speeds at unlimited data are implied (256kbit/s beyond FUP which is lesser than the TRAI

specified limit of half of your original speed)).[37][38] The maximum speed available for home users is 16Mbit/s.

Airtel Broadband had about 1.36 million subscribers at the end of April 2012.[39] Airtel has about 3.16 million wireline customers, of which 42.6% are broadband internet subscribers as of August 2010. Until 18 September 2004, Bharti provided Fixedline telephony and broadband services under the Touchtel brand. Bharti now provides all telecom services including fixedline services under a common brand "Airtel".

Airtel Broadband filters your internet requests and on many occasions they are known to block file sharing websites such as vimeo.com megavideo.com , thepiratebay.se etc. with out any legal information given to the customers.[40]

Airtel Broadband Blocking TPB

Digital Television

Main article: Airtel digital TV

The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV services across India under the brand name Airtel digital TV. It started services on 9 October 2008 and has about 32.44 million customers as of August 2010.[41]

Enterprise

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

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

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

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 cheap computing devices in the world's fastest-growing and second-largest mobile phone market.[42]

Rest of the World

Africa

Main article: Airtel Africa

Bangladesh

Main article: Airtel Bangla

Sri Lanka

Main article: Bharti Airtel Lanka

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 [43] [44]  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.

Subscriber Base

Bharti Airtel has about 243.336 million subscribers worldwide—232.95 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]

India

The Airtel subscriber base according to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) as of April 2012 was:

Metros

Delhi  – 8,818,153 Mumbai  – 3,738,188 Kolkata  – 3,882,463 Chennai  – 3,388,379

"A" Circle

Andhra Pradesh  – 18,539,788 Gujarat  – 7,062,371 Karnataka  – 15,468,507 Maharashtra  – 9,968,936 Tamil Nadu  – 10,094,293

"B" Circle

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

"C" Circle

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

Airtel is the market leader in India with about 181 million subscribers in India or about 27.22% market share at the end of March 2012.The Brand Trust Report [45] published by Trust Research Advisory, places Airtel as the only mobile operator in the top 10 most trusted brands in India.

Acquisitions and Mergers

MTN

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 bemarrying up," as MTN has more subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage.[46] However, the talks fell apart as MTN group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company.[47]

In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it is in Talks with MTN and companies have now agreed discuss the potential transaction exclusively by 31 July 2009.[48] Bharti Airtel said in a statement "Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to announce that it has renewed its effort for a significant partnership with MTN Group".[49]

Talks eventually ended without agreement, due to the South African government opposition.[50]

Zain

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.Airtel has reported that its revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 grew by 53% to US$3.2 billion compared to the previous year, newly acquired Zain Africa division contributed US$911 million to the total.However, net profits dropped by 41% from US$470 million last year to US$291 million this year due to a US$188 million increase in radio spectrum charges in India and an increase of US$106 million in debt interest.[citation needed]

Telecom Seychelles

On August 11, 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire 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 market of Seychelles.[51] 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 2,000 km undersea high speed link to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.[52]

Joint Ventures

Airtel-Ericsson

As per a five-year managed services agreement signed recently[when?], Ericsson will manage and optimize Airtel’s mobile networks in Africa. Ericsson will modernize and upgrade Airtel’s mobile networks in Africa with the latest technology including its multi standard RBS 6000 base station. As part of the modernization, Ericsson will also provide technology consulting, network planning & design and network deployment.Ericsson has been the managed services and network technology partner in the Asian operations.[citation needed]

Rebranding

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, the new logo is the letter 'a' in lowercase, with 'airtel' written in lowercase under the logo.[53]

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.

One Network

One Network is a borderless mobile phone network across all Airtel operating countries which enables customers to move freely between the countries in which Airtel operates, and be treated as “virtual” local customers of the visited network in terms of pricing, while retaining their home network service functionality.

One Network allows customers travelling to One Network countries to make outgoing calls/SMS at the same rates as local customers and recharge with local top-up cards or with home network top up cards while using the same number and SIM. Incoming calls however are charged at between $0.03 - 0.15 depending on the country the call is received from.

Airtel offers the service currently to its Africa customers travelling to any of the following 27 countries.In eight of these countries, the One Network is operated in partnership with other mobile operators. They are also listed below.

S. No.

Country Network

1 Burkina Faso Airtel

2 Bangladesh Airtel

3 Chad Airtel

4 Channels Islands: Jersey and Guernsey Airtel

5 Democratic Republic of the Congo Airtel

6 Gabon Airtel

7 Ghana Airtel

8 India Airtel

9 Kenya Airtel

10 Madagascar Airtel

11 Malawi Airtel

12 Niger Airtel

13 Nigeria Airtel

14 Republic of the Congo Airtel

15 Sierra Leone Airtel

16 Seychelles Airtel

17 Sri Lanka Airtel

18 Tanzania Airtel

19 Uganda Airtel

20 Bahrain Zain

21 Iraq Zain

22 Jordan Zain

23 Kuwait Zain

24 Saudi Arabia Zain

25 Sudan Zain

26 South Africa Cell C

27 Egypt Mobinil

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

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 crickettournament. But now the deal is terminated and Nokia is sponsoring Champions League Twenty20 cricket."[54]

Airtel, also signed a deal to be title sponsor the inaugural Formula One Indian Grand Prix during the 2011 season.[55]

Signature tune

The signature tune of Airtel is composed by Indian musician A. R. Rahman. The tune became hugely popular and is the world's most downloaded mobile music with over 150 million downloads.[56] A new version of the song was released on 18 November 2010, as part of the rebranding of the company.[56][57] This version too was composed by Rahman himself.[57]

Green initiative

GreenTowers P7 program

As of today,Bharti Infratel is the only telecom tower company, which has installed almost 3 MWT of solar capacity on their network, generating more than 5 mn units of electricity every year.The Green Towers P7 program is scoped for 22,000 tower sites (primarily rural areas having low or no Grid Power availability) out of which 5,500 sites have already been implemented in the first year as a part of this 3-year program. Once completed, the initiative will reduce diesel consumption by 66 mn litres per year with a significant carbon dioxide reduction of around 1.5 lac MT per year. Bharti Infratel bagged the 2011 'Green Mobile Award ' at the GSMA Mobile World Congress atBarcelona and was also awarded the 2010 innovative infrastructure company of the year award at the CNBC Infrastructure Awards for this groundbreaking initiative.Bharti remains the first company in the world to introduce the practice of sharing of passive infrastructure by collaborating with their competition to share mobile towers and to reduce the collective carbon footprint of the industry. This has become a subject of case studies in institutions including the Harvard Business School.[citation needed]

Energy conservation

The company has installed solar hot water generator at its main campus in Gurgaon for fulfilling the hot water requirement in the cafeteria. Majority of its facilities across NCR region are now equipped with LES (Lighting Energy Savers) which have reduced energy consumption in the lighting system to the tune of 10–25%. Variable Frequency Drives installed in AHU (Air Handling Unit) at its campus have helped in enhancing the efficiency of cooling system by 10%. These measures have resulted in a total saving of 8.5 lakh units of electricity per year. Airtel has embarked upon technology related initiatives like virtualization of servers that has helped it release over 500 CPUs. Also the drive of sending e-bills to the post-paid customers is helping save 12,840 trees annually. Within its campus

the ‘Secure Print Solution' – an automated queue management based secured printing solution has led to an annualized saving of about 8 metric tonnes of paper.

Alternate energy sources such as solar energy

They have already deployed these at as many as 1050 sites thus saving 6.9 mn litres of diesel and approximately  280 million.

Energy efficiency measures such as Integrated Power Management Systems and variable speed DC generators

It has resulted in the reduction in the rate of diesel consumption by 1.2 mn litres. They have already saved  47 million across nearly 900 sites.

Demand side management like Free Cooling Units (FCU) instead of air conditioners

It has already been implemented across 3400+ sites, saving consumption of 4.1 mn litres of diesel.

Timeline

Logo used by Airtel till 2010 November

The chronology of events since Bharti Tele-Ventures was incorporated in 1995:[58]

1995

Bharti Cellular launched cellular services as "AirTel" in Delhi.

2010

On 18 May 2010, Airtel won 3G spectrum in 13 circles: Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (West), Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, Jammu & Kashmir for Rs. 12,295 crores.[21]

Bharti Airtel wins broadband spectrum in four circles: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata for Rs. 3314.36 crores.[27]

On 18 November 2010, Bharti Airtel announced a re-branding campaign wherein, they would be referred as airtel, with a new logo.

On 20 December 2010, Airtel launched its new identity for Bangladesh subscribers.[59]

On 23 December 2010, Airtel opened its first underground terrestrial fibre optic cable built in alliance with China Telecom.[60]

2011

On 24 January 2011, Airtel announced the launch of its 3G services in India.[61]

On 31 January 2011, Airtel launched wallet service - Airtel Money in the millennium city of Gurgaon.[62]

On 18 February 2011, Airtel Digital TV brings cricket world cup in High Definition.[63]

On 14 March 2011, Bharti Airtel announced the launch of ‘Airtel Broadband TV’.[64]

On 11 April 2011, Bharti Airtel and Apple bring the iPhone 4 to India.[65]

On 18 April 2011, Bharti Airtel enters into a partnership with photo service Zoomin.com.[66]

On 17 May 2011, Airtel launches the world’s first USSD-based Facebook access service in India – Facebook by Fonetwish.[67]

On 2 June 2011, Bharti Airtel offers on-demand online movie viewing services - launches ‘Airtel Movies’[68]

On 16 June 2011, Airtel digital TV launches iKisaan – the world’s first interactive service in Hindi.[69]

On 27 June 2011, Airtel 3G launches international video calling services.[70]

On 7 July 2011, Bharti Airtel announces new organisation structure for its India and South Asia operations.[71]

On 18 July 2011, Airtel digital TV adds 41 new channels.[72]

On 25 July 2011, Bharti Airtel Launches Facebook For Every Phone.[73]

On 16 August 2011, Wide availability of Airtel Service Centers in Rajasthan creates easy touch points for customer service.[74]

On 19 September 2011, Bharti Airtel announces GO! GO! GOAL Contest 2011.[75]

On 22 September 2011, Airtel digital TV brings the TV series “Johnny Test” to India.[76]

On 26 September 2011, Airtel Youth Star kicks off ‘Friends Dance Carnival’ in Andhra Pradesh.[77]

On 28 October 2011, 2011 Formula 1 Airtel Grand Prix of India Winner's Trophy Revealed.[78]

On 1 November 2011, Airtel digital TV now has 11 True HD channels,Expands total channel count to 262.[79]

On 11 November 2011, Bharti Airtel named amongst the top 25 companies for leaders globally.[80]

On 25 November 2011, Mr. Sharlin Thayil, CEO – Bharti Airtel, AP launches iPhone 4S in Hyderabad.

On 1 December 2011, Airtel introduces India’s first free mobile access to Twitter.[81]

On 12 December 2011, Bharti Airtel recognized for the delivery of best network services with customer focus at Telecom Centre of Excellence Awards.[82]

On 21 December 2011, Airtel launches exciting recharge offers for mobile customers in Rajasthan.[83]

2012

On 11 January 2012, Airtel launched Comedy FM on Airtel Mobile.[84]

On 12 January 2012, Airtel launches all new “BBM Plan” for its postpaid mobile customers on BlackBerry.[85]

On 23 January 2012, Airtel prepaid mobile recharge made easier with netbanking at www.airtel.in[86]

On 30 January 2012, Airtel digital TV launches iKidsworld.[87]

On 2 February 2012, Airtel launched Vh1 Radio GAGA powered by Hungama on Airtel Mobile.[88]

On 3 February 2012, India’s largest collection of Hello Tunes is now available online for Airtel mobile customers.[89]

On 4 February 2012, Bharti Airtel announces consolidated IFRS results for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2011.[90]

On 10 February 2012, Bharti Airtel launched 3 Pack Education Portal for its mobile customers across India.[91]

On 27 February 2012, Bharti Airtel selects Infosys as its technology partner for airtel money.[92]

On 29 February 2012, Bharti Airtel appoints Nokia Siemens Networks to supply, manage 4G network in Maharashtra.[93]

On 27 May 2012, Bharti Airtel announced its strategic foray into the mobile advertising (m-Advertising) segment, in India.[94]

In 2012, Bharti Airtel signed a pact with Opera Software, to provide its customers with Opera Mini browsers.[95]