Bharti Airtel
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Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel is an Indian multinational telecommunications company, headquartered in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across the Indian subcontinent, Africa, and the Channel Islands. In India, the company provides mobile telephony services using 5G, 4G, and LTE Advanced technologies, along with fixed-line broadband and voice services, while the range of services varies by country of operation.

Airtel is the second-largest mobile network operator in India and second largest mobile network operator in the world. It has also deployed Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology across telecom circles in India to support voice calls over 4G networks.

In 1984, Sunil Mittal started assembling push-button phones in India, which he earlier used to import from a Singaporean company, Singtel, replacing the old-fashioned, bulky rotary phones that were in use in the country then. Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated and entered into a technical tie-up with Siemens AG of Germany for the manufacture of electronic push-button phones. By the early 1990s, Bharti was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear. He named his first push-button Telephone as 'Mitbrau'.

In 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network licenses auctioned in India. One of the conditions for the Delhi cellular licenses was that the bidder have some experience as a telecom operator. So, Mittal clinched a deal with the French telecom group Vivendi. He was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecom business as a major growth area. His plans were finally approved by the Government in 1994 and he launched services in Delhi in 1995, when Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel. Within a few years, Bharti became the first telecom company to cross the 2 million mobile subscriber mark. Bharti also brought down the STD/ISD cellular rates in India under the brand name 'India one'.

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 Kolkata. 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 re-branded 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 July 2004, Airtel launched "Hello Tunes", a caller ring back tone service (Ringing Tone), becoming the first operator in India to do so. The Airtel theme song was composed by A. R. Rahman.

In 2009, Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the fixed-line business. Later, Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network across the country. This would help consumers access internet at faster-speed and high-quality internet browsing on mobile handsets.

In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In June 2010, Bharti acquired the African business of Zain Telecom for $10.7 billion, making it the largest ever acquisition by an Indian telecom firm. In 2012, Bharti tied up with Walmart, the US retail giant, to start a number of retail stores across India. In 2014, Bharti planned to acquire Loop Mobile for 7 billion (US$73 million), but the deal was called off later.

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