The flagship Indian telecommunications company of Bharti Enterprises, Bharti Airtel is Asia’s leading integrated telecom services provider with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, the company was incorporated in 1995 as Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., with the current name created in 2006.
The company began launching mobile services in 1995 and became the first private telecom operator to obtain a basic telephone services license in 1997. They went on to structure the business into three segments: mobile services, airtel telemedia services and enterprise services. The company acquired cellular services operator JT Mobiles in 1999 and Skycell Chennai in South India. In 2001, IndiaOne, India’s first private sector national and international long-distance service, was launched. The company acquired and merged with mobile and telecommunications companies across India during the 2000s in addition to extending their business segments, partnering with companies such as IBM and Google. In 2006, Bharti Airtel entered the US market with their launch of Airtel CallHome service.
Today, Airtel Telemedia Services offers broadband and telephone services in 95 cities, while its mobile business provides mobile and fixed wireless services to 23 telecom circles across India and is considered one of the top three mobile service providers globally.
- Family name: Mittal family
- Sector: Telecommunications
- Founded: 1995
- Founder: Sunil Bharti Mittal
- Country: India
- Company headquarters: New Delhi
- Revenue: 13.9
- Employees: 14,459
- Website: airtel.com
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