bharti airtel - organization structure

Timeline
Logo used by Airtel till 2010 November

The chronology of events since Bharti Tele-Ventures was incorporated in 1995:[29]

1995

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

1996

 STET International Netherlands NV, or STET, a company promoted by Telecom Italia,

Italy acquired a 20% equity interest in Bharti Tele-Ventures
 Bharti Telenet launched cellular services in Himachal Pradesh

1997

 British Telecom acquired a 21.05% equity interest in Bharti Cellular

 Bharti Telenet obtained a license for providing fixed-line services in Madhya Pradesh
cirlce (and later Chattisgarh).
 Bharti Telecom and British Telecom formed a 51% : 49% joint venture, Bharti BT, for
providing VSAT services

1998
  Bharti Telecom and British Telecom formed a 51% : 49% joint venture, "Bharti BT
Internet" for providing Internet services
 First Indian private fixed-line services launched in Indore in the Madhya Pradesh circle
on June 4, 1998 by Bharti Telenet thereby ending fixed-line services monopoly of
Department of Telecom (now BSNL).

1999

 Warburg Pincus (through its investment company Brentwood Investment Holdings

Limited) acquired a 19.05% equity interest in Bharti Tele-Ventures
 Bharti Tele-Ventures (by acquiring a 63.45% equity interest in SC Cellular Holdings)
acquired an effective 32.36% equity interest in Bharti Mobile (formerly JT Mobiles), the
cellular services provider in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh circles
 New York Life Insurance Fund, or NYLIF, acquired a 3% equity interest in Bharti
Cellular

2000

 Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired an effective equity interest of 40.5% in Bharti Mobinet

(formerly Skycell Communications), the cellular services provider in Chennai
 Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired a 30.2% equity interest of Telecom Italia in Bharti Telenet
and 18.8% from Bharti Telecom thereby making Bharti Telenet a 100% subsidiary of
Bharti Tele-Ventures
 SingTel (through its investment company Pastel Limited) acquired STET's 15.3% equity
interest in Bharti Tele-Ventures
 Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired an additional effective 41.64% equity interest in Bharti
Mobile (by acquiring the remaining 36.55% equity interest in SC Cellular) resulting in
Bharti Tele-Ventures holding an effective 74% equity interest in Bharti Mobile.

2001

 Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired NYLIF's 3% equity interest in Bharti Cellular

 Bharti Telesonic entered into a joint venture, Bharti Aquanet, with SingTel for
establishing a submarine cable landing station at Chennai
 Bharti Tele-Ventures issued additional equity for approximately US$ 481.30 million to
SingTel, Warburg Pincus, AIF group, IFC, NYLIF, and Seejay Cellular and Bharti
Telecom
 Bharti Cellular acquired a 100% equity interest in Bharti Mobitel (formerly Spice Cell ),
the cellular services provider in Kolkata
 Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired 85% and 15% in Bharti Telespatial from Bharti Telecom
and Intel, respectively
 Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired a 44% equity interest in Bharti Cellular from British
Telecom, thereby making Bharti Cellular its 100% subsidiary
 Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired an additional 49% equity interest in Bharti Mobinet from
Millicom International and BellSouth International, thereby owning 89.5% equity interest
 in Bharti Mobinet, which was further increased to 95.3% following an issuance of
additional equity shares by way of rights issue
 Punjab license restored to Bharti Mobile by the Department of Telecom (DoT) and
migration to NTP - 1999 accepted
 Bharti Cellular entered into license agreements to provide cellular services in eight new
circles following the fourth operator cellular license bidding process
 Bharti Telenet entered into license agreements to provide fixed-line services in the
Haryana, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka circles
 Bharti Telesonic entered into a license agreement with the DoT to provide national long
distance services across India
 Bharti Aquanet, Bharti Telesonic and Bharti Cellular entered into license agreements
with the DoT to provide ISP services in India
 Bharti Telesonic launched national long distance services under the brand name of
IndiaOne
 Bharti Telenet launched fixed line services in Haryana under the brand name of
"TouchTel".

2002

 Enters into a 5-year agreement with Escotel (now called Idea Cellular) and ETL of the
Escorts group to contract leased line connectivity for its cellular operations
 Mr. Ravi Akhoury ceases to be Director of Bharti Tele
 DoT grants ILD Telephony License to Bharti Telesonic, subsidiary of the company
 Signs MoU with Telia AB to buy out their 26% stake in Bharti Mobile
 Ties up with Secondary School Certification (SSC) Board, Hyderabad, where Bharti will
announce SSC results to its customers on their mobile phones
 ICICI Bank ties up with Bharti for pre-paid mobile cards via ATMs
 Bharti forays into Mumbai with offers
 Alpine International Ltd. and ELM International Ltd. acquire shares of Bharti Tele-
Ventures

2003

 Airtel breaks interconnectivity with Tata Teleservices in Andhra Pradesh

 Company accorded its approval for amalgamation of its subsidiary companies viz: Bharti
Telenet Ltd, Bharti Telesonic Ltd, Bharti Broadband Networks Ltd and Bharti Comtel
Ltd through scheme of Amalgamation. The merged entity would be renamed as Bharti
Infotel Ltd
 Airtel launches Local direct dialling facility in Chennai circle
 Bharti Cellular unveils "CareTouch" service
 Cellular brand "Airtel" unveils free multimedia messaging services (MMS) for its
customers. The company has also rolled out pan-India GPRS for its corporate subscribers
 Launches its `IndiaOne MeetXpress' audio-conferencing service
 Punjab, Haryana get free incoming calls from Airtel
 AirTel provides SMS facilities to hearing impaired in Chennai
 Goa, Maharashtra gets 'voice portal' services by Bharti Cellular
 Launches free additional connection to its new subscribers in New Delhi
 Mr Sin Hang Boon and Mr Wong Hung Khim have resigned from the Board of Directors
of Bharti Tele Ventures Ltd with effect from February 27, 2003.
 Airtel launches its GPRS network in Chennai
 Airtel subscribers cross 3 million mark
 AirTel unveils RAD system
 Mr P M Sinha resigns from the Board of Directors of the Company with effect from
March 31, 2003.
 Bharti TeleVentures announces the completion of merger with Bharti Mobitel
 Bharti Mobitel Ltd. merged with Bharti Cellular Ltd.
 "Airtel" and "Touchtel" jointly offer free Touchtel land line for post-paid Airtel
connection
 Airtel rolls out voice mail service for pre-paid customers
 AirTel unveils new scheme for pre-paid customers giving away free talk time worth Rs
10 crore
 Airtel surpasses 4 lakh subscriber base in Karnataka
 Bharti announces new tariff plan AirTel 012
 Offers 0-1-2, a new cellular package for the customers, which means zero charges on
incoming calls, Re 1 on mobile-to-mobile outgoing calls, Rs 2 on mobile-to-mobile STD
calls
 Rolls out Airtel messenger service
 AirTel offers bundled handset, connection package for Rs 5715
 Airtel slashes SMS rates to 60 paise; excludes Delhi and Mumbai
 Bharti cellular, wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Tele-Ventures, increases its stake to
100% in Bharti Mobile
 Signs distribution pact with Hathway Cable. With this alliance, Bharti is said to be the
first telecom firm to step into television distribution services
 Six cell operators move over from Bharti to VSNL
 Airtel augments cellular coverage in Tamil Nadu by including Arcot & Walajapet in its
network
 Airtel ties up with Coke in Chennai to sell its "Magic" prepaid cards
 AirTel embarks on network expansion in Hyderabad
 Airtel unveils IndiaOne Long Distance Calling Card
 AirTel introduces unified tariff package in Tamil Nadu and Chennai
 Airtel becomes front runner in Karnataka's mobile services market
 Bharti Tele launches 'Always on' service to its subscribers
 State Bank of India and AirTel announce EMI offer at Rs 299
 Bharti and MTV join hands to launch new SIM card
 AirTel unveils new post-paid scheme at zero rental
 AirTel launches `Happy Plan' in AP
 Airtel emerges as the highest selling pre-paid card
 Airtel join hands with Alcatel & Videocon to launch new scheme
 AirTel service provider touches 5 lakh customers in Punjab
  Airtel offers 5 new services for its customers in Mumbai
 Bharti launches first dual band network in Delhi
 Gets 14th place among top 25 Cos in India
 Bharti Mobile crosses 4 lakh mobile subscribers in AP
 Airtel holds top position in terms of dealer penetration
 Prof. V S Raju has been inducted on the Board of Directors of the Company.
 Touchtel launches SMS service in fixed line phones in Karnal and Panipat in Haryana.
 Airtel unveils special offers in Kerala
 AirTel launches InnoWest for the western region
 Bharti Tele-Ventures enters into an agreement with Telesystem (Mauritius) Pvt. Ltd
 Airtel slashes out going SMS price to 30ps
 On December 16, 2003, Airtel announced the launch of expense tracker service, which
provides customers the option of tracking their day-to-day expenses on a daily or
monthly basis. This service will allow a user to track expenses, while on the move by
sending an SMS.
 AirTel introduces MTV Club Card in Chennai

2004

 Bharti unveils new card for Mecca piligrims

 AirTel enrolls 50,000 customers in its mobile service in 60 days
 Launches WAP enabled portal Service in Kerala
 Bharti Cellular's AirTel has extended its mobile connectivity to Karaikkal, Nagur,
Mannargudi and Kovilpalayam in Tamil Nadu.
 Airtel customer base touches new high of 5 lakh mark in Andhra Pradesh
 On Pongal, Airtel is launching its first ever MMS downloads in Tamil.
 AirTel tie up with MAA TV
 Airtel launches Rs 50 pre-paids recharge
 AirTel launched a family pack for its post-paid customers in Chennai on January 29.
 Bharti Tele-Ventures enters into a three year service agreement with Ericsson
 Bharti Tele-Ventures (BTVL) has signed and received unified access service licence to
provide GSM services in Uttar Pradesh (East), West Bengal & Andaman Nicobar, Orissa,
Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir. The licence has been granted to Bharti Cellular Ltd (BCL),
the cellular arm and subsidiary of BTVL.
 Airtel and Mobilink, the only GSM cellular service provider in Pakistan, sign the first-
ever bilateral roaming agreement between India and Pakistan
 Acquires switching systems from Tekelec
 Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd signed an information technology outsourcing deal with
infotech major IBM, estimated to be in the range of 0-750 million for a ten-year period.
 Jayant Khosla, new chief executive officer, Mumbai
 Signs MoU to join the South East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE-
4) consortium along with 15 other global telecom operators.
 Bharti Tele-Ventures has struck a deal with Shyam Telecom to buy out the latter's 67.5
per cent stake in cellular services company Hexacom for Rs 430 crore.
 Samsung India Electronics Limited has tied up with cellular operator Bharti for bundling
its mobile handsets with a connection.
 The Bharti group finalised a Rs 500-crore deal to share its national long-distance (STD)
network with VSNL in a first-of-its-kind accord between two top telecom service
providers in a bid to optimise capacities in the NLD segment.
 Internet gateway and services provider, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) has signed a
Right to Use (RoU) agreement to deploy mobile telephony major, Bharti Tele-Ventures'
existing National Long Distance (NLD) backbone.
 Airtel offers talktime transfer service
 Airtel has announced money-back guarantee offer in case of call drop or poor network
experience for its subscribers
 Bharti launches 2-in-1 card
 Airtel launched two-way international roaming and GPRS for prepaid customers in the
Maharshtra and Goa circles
 Bharti Tele-Ventures has bagged the Asian MobileNews operator of the year award in
India and the subcontinent
 Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd has awarded a million equipment contract to Swedish telecoms
company Ericsson
 Bharti Televentures announced formation of a new strategic business unit to offer various
telecom and IT services through a single contact
 Bharti Televentures unveiled a mobile portal featuring sports, entertainment and news
among others
 Airtel ties up with Micro Tech to set up 'Mcops' vehicle security system
 Bharti Tele-Venture on July 19 launched "Caller Tunes" service, a personalized mobile
music service where the caller hears songs and other sound clips instead of the traditional
switchboard ring-ring tone
 Airtel, a private telecom services provider, has commissioned its first 24x7 customer
service centre in Andhra Pradesh
 Airtel unveils Rs 199 pre paid card
 AirTel join hands with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) to
offer executive MBA programme
 AirTel introduces new scheme for hearing impaired in Maharashtra & Goa
 AirTel inks pact with JP Mobile
 Rolls out Enhanced Data Rate for Global Evolution (EDGE) network in Pune on
September 9, 2004, Ties up with Nokia for sale of Nokia 6230, an EDGE-enabled
handset.
 AirTel unveils first virtual calling cards in India
 BTVL rolls out EDGE services in Bangalore
 Airtel rolls out Full Talktime Advantage card
 Airtel rolls out wi-fi services in Mumbai
 BTVL launches new 'Airtel Broadband Friendly Offer'
 Airtel launches GPRS services for pre-paid customers
 Airtel partners with ITPO to set up Wi-Fi network in Delhi
 Airtel launches EDGE services and a new pre-paid plan for Chennai
 Airtel introduces LAS in Karnataka
2005

 Airtel launches video services for its GPRS customers on February 22, 2005
 Airtel unveils new TV ad featuring Sachin Tendulkar and Shah Rukh Khan
 Bharti Tele-Ventures launches telecom network in Andaman & Nicobar
 BTVL unveil fixed line, broadband services
 Bharti inks 5-m deal with Nokia for rural network expansion
 Bharti Tele Ventures Ltd has announced that Airtel, ICICI Bank & VISA have joined
hands to launch mCheq - a revolutionary new service - a credit card on the mobile phone
 Airtel introduces BlackBerry Connect in India
 Bharti Tele Ventures announces agreement with Vodafone
 Airtel unveils 'free flight' offer
 Bharti Tele-Ventures launches under sea cable system

2006

 Airtel unveils Re 1 STD plans

 Airtel launches NetXpert.
 Airtel launches Post2Pre recharging service on April 04,2006.
 Airtel sets up customer centre
 Airtel announced the launch of `Save My Phone Contact' service for its pre-paid and
post-paid customers in Delhi
 Bharti Tele Ventures bags 'Wireless Service Provider of the Year' & 'Competitive Service
Provider of the Year' awards
 Cellebrum join hands with Airtel
 Airtel Mega unveiled in Coimbatore
 Bharti Airtel Ltd and Microsoft announced a strategic partnership that will offer a range
of software and services for small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India.
 Bharti Airtel Ltd on Nov 8, announced a first-of-its-kind alliance with the Adani Group
for establishing an end-to-end modern telecommunication network infrastructure for the
latter's multi-sector special economic zone (SEZ), located near Mundra Port in Kutch
district of Gujarat.

2007

 Bharti Airtel has come out with a slew of initiatives including buying out SingTel's 50
per cent stake in joint venture under sea cable company Network i2i
 Bharti Airtel on Feb 11, has been awarded QCI-DL Shah National Award on Economics
of Quality.
 Bharti Airtel Ltd has announces changes in the operational leadership structure and roles
in the Company effective April 01, 2007.
 Bharti Airtel Ltd on April 01, 2007, has announces the reduction in ISD Tariffs for all its
mobile customers in India.

8Airtel signs agreement with HTC for touch screen mobile.

2008

 Nokia Siemens Networks on Jan 3 declared that it has been awarded a multi million euro
contract from Bharti Airtel Ltd for deployment of a single interactive voice response
(IVR) platform across 23 circles. The three-year turnkey contract comprises designing,
planning, systems integration and optimisation services to raise overall customer
experience. The new IVR solution will enable Airtel to deliver services such as voice
SMS, televoting, call management services, caller ring back tone and voice portal on a
faster time-to-market basis and, therefore, reduce OPEX costs.
 Bharti Airtel Ltd on February 13, 2008 has announced that it has achieved the 60 million
mobile, fixed line and broadband customers.
 Bharti Airtel tied up with US-based Apple Inc to bring the popular GSM-based iPhone in
the country.
 Bharti Airtel Ltd has forged a technology alliance with Infosys Technologies Ltd to
launch its Direct-to-Home (DTH) television services. Infosys, through its digital
convergence platform, will offer a suite of products including devices, application servers
and interactive applications for Airtel's DTH services.

2009

 Bharti Airtel signed a five-year managed services deal with Alcatel-Lucent for its fixed-
line and broadband operations.
 Bharti Airtel launched the 'Airtel Advantage' initiative. The initiative is aimed at offering
the added advantage to Airtel customers to be in touch with each other at an affordable
rate of 50 paise per minute, be it a national long distance call (STD) or a local call.
 In order to create products and services for the small, medium and large enterprises,
Bharti Airtel and Cisco announced a strategic business alliance. The alliance would
combine the strengths of Airtel's network service and Cisco' Internet Protocol (IP)
technologies.
 Airtel and mChek announce milestone of 1 Million users and introduce a broad range of
new mCommerce services.

2010

 On 14, February 2010, Zain Ghana issued a resolution to accept a $10.7 billion buyout
offer from Bharti Airtel Limited (Bharti) to enter into exclusive discussions until 25
March 2010, regarding the sale of its African unit, Zain Africa BV.
 Bharti Airtel submitted its bid for 3G spectrum auction which starts from April 9, 2010.
 Bharti Airtel has partnered with US-based software maker VMware Inc. It has done this
in order to focus on the cloud-based managed computer services market.
 On May 18, 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.
[30]

 Bharti Airtel wins broadband spectrum in four circles: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab
and Kolkata for Rs. 3314.36 crores.[31]
  On 8, June 2010, Bharti Airtel completed a deal to Zain Telecom's businesses in 15
African countries for $10.7 billion.
 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.
 On 20 September 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.
 On 18 November, 2010, Bharti Airtel announced a re-branding campaign wherein, they
would be referred as airtel, with a new logo.[32]

TRAI data reveals that the overall wireless industry revenues grew 3.3% qoq in 4Q after remaining flat in the previous
3 quarters. At the end of FY 2010 [March-10], Bharti Airtel still leads the Revenue Market share in Wireless segment
with a Pan India share of 32% down from 32.8% a year ago and a a peak of 33.9% in June-09. This is how Wireless
Operators rank w.r.t Revenue Market Share at the end of March-2010.

 Bharti Airtel  32%

 Vodafone 20.8% [Consistent]
 Idea Cellular 12.7% [Moderate Growth, but commendable]
 Reliance Communications -11.7% [ Losing to competition ]
 BSNL 9.3% [ Loser]
 Tata Tele [ Gaining on the back of DoCoMo’s innovative strategies
 Aircel 4%
The following Chart shows how Wireless Operators Revenue Market Share varied in the Past 1 Year.
Bharti Airtel Magic touch for revenues continues in many Telecom Circles across India. The following Chart shows
the breakup of Revenues for the Top 6 Operators Across all Telecom Circles.

For example, in Karnataka Circle – Bharti Airtel commands 50% Revenue Share. Vodafone 14%, Tata DoCoMo 11%
and BSNL around 8%.

You might also want to check out, TelecomBlogs Best Running Wireless deals across India.