Bharti Airtel From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bharti

Type Public company

Traded as BSE: 532454NSE: 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

Bangladesh Airtel

Bangladesh

Airtel Bangladesh had about 5.1 million

customers at the end of June 2011.[12]

Burkina Faso Airtel

Burkina Faso

Airtel Burkina Faso is the dominant

player with 1,433,000 customers

representing 50% market share.[13]

Chad Airtel Chad

Airtel Chad is the #1 operator with 69%

market share.[13]

Democratic Republic of the Congo Airtel DRC

Airtel is the market leader with almost 5

million customers at the end of 2010.

Gabon Airtel Gabon

Airtel Gabon has 829,000 customers and

its market share stood at 61%.[14]

Ghana Airtel Ghana

Airtel Ghana had about 1.76 million

customers at the end of 2010.[15]

India Airtel

Airtel is the market leader with almost

152.5 million customers at the end of

2010.[15]

Kenya Airtel Kenya

Airtel Kenya is the second largest

operator and has 4 million customers.[16]

Madagascar Airtel

Madagascar

Airtel holds second place in the mobile

telecom market in 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]

Niger Airtel Niger

Airtel Niger is the market leader with a

68% market share.[13]

Nigeria Airtel

Nigeria

Republic of the Congo Airtel Congo

B

Airtel Congo is the market leader with a

55% market share.[13]

Rwanda Airtel

Rwanda

Airtel launched services in Rwanda on

30 March 2012.[17]

Seychelles Airtel

Seychelles

Airtel is the leading comprehensive

telecommunications services providers

with over 55% market share of mobile

market in Seychelles.[18]

Sierra Leone Airtel Sierra

Leone

Sri Lanka Airtel 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]

Tanzania Airtel

Tanzania

Airtel Tanzania is the market leader

with a 38% market share.[13]

Uganda Airtel

Uganda

Airtel Uganda stands as the #2 operator

with a market share of 38%.[13]

Zambia Airtel

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.commegavideo.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]