Market

The Caged Tiger as The Economist once described the Indian economy, has unshackled and unfettered itself largely with the help of the country's telecom sector. The recognition for India within the global community as an emerging economic superpower is indisputably the result of the dramatically rapid growth that India has demonstrated in this vital sector. On the back of this is riding information technology the infrastructural turbojet without which industry and trade cannot hope to soar to new heights in today's world. The Indian telecom market is the third largest after China and the US (Source: industry estimates). Mobile phones today exceed the number of fixed line phones in the country. From the days of two million mobile phones in the entire country to an era of over nine million new phones being added every month the transformation is staggering. Bharti Tele-Ventures has led this telecom revolution from the front, occupying an enviable leadership position in the market. Its cutting edge, future-proof technology, simple innovations, path-breaking business partnerships and world-class products and services epitomise Bharti's quest for excellence. The company had once seen state monopolies and endless regulations as a formidable struggle. At that time few could have predicted the telecom revolution that is now sweeping India. The onset of liberalisation and the opening up of the telecom sector to private

players in the 1990s created a paradigm shift in the way people communicate. Bharti is now India's leading private sector provider of telecom services with more than sixty million customers and services in all twenty three circles in India (Source: Cellular Operators Association of India). Its market share is more than 24% in the GSM mobile industry placing it amongst the top ten companies in the country in terms of market capitalisation (Source: BSE Sensex). Today, Bharti is India's largest telecom service enterprise in the private sector with a market cap of over Rs.160,000 crore (US$ 40 billion) and a motivated team of more than 12,000 people. Telecom in India was considered a service for the rich as late as the early 1990s. Bharti started the telecom revolution in India by challenging the established public sector incumbent with the launch of several services at much lower price points. Notable market interventions were in the area of national and international long distance, where the tariffs were brought down by nearly 90% making telephony available to the masses in the country. Bharti has also taken the lead in providing services in rural areas and in difficult states like the remote Himalayan hamlets of Himachal Pradesh, the hinterland towns of Madhya Pradesh and a predominantly rural state like Bihar. Bharti's belief that people and partnerships make the real difference is characterised by its relationships with leading edge global partners. Over the years, the company's global collaborators have

been nothing short of stellar Singapore Telecom, E.M. Warburg Pincus, British Telecom, Telecom Italia, Siemens, Vivendi, New York Life and IFC.

Achievements
In a category where taking the lead provides a company with the first mover advantage, Bharti has many firsts to its credit. It was the first company to break the fixed line and long distance monopolies in India. Following shortly on this success, Bharti also became the first company to offer comprehensive telecom services overseas. But being first was not enough. Bharti was also determined to prove its status of being a fine company with an impeccable record and outstanding leadership. The accolades came swiftly. In 2004, Bharti was adjudged as India's Second Best Employer by Hewitt Associates. Asia Money declared it India's Best Managed Company in the same year. Forbes featured it in their 400 list of the Best Big Companies. The Economic Times awarded it The Emerging Company of the Year status. Crisil awarded it the highest GVC Level 1 rating for being in the forefront of Best Practices in Corporate Governance. Business Week featured Bharti in the list of Global 1000 Companies. Business World conferred upon it the title of the Most Respected Telecom Company in India. In 2005, Telecom Asia gave Bharti the best GSM Carrier in Asia and the best Indian Carrier Awards. For four consecutive years, the Techies Award for Brand Excellence, Network Quality, Customer Service and Value-Added Service has been won by Bharti. In the 2006/08 period, Bharti Airtel was awarded the Facility Based Operator License in Singapore. It was also chosen as the top telecom company for the second year in a row by NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2007. It ranked third on Shareholder Returns in the BusinessWeek IT 100 List. The company broke into the distinguished list of the worlds top ten global service providers when it crossed the 40 million mobile customer mark. Its management, too, has been recognised for its contribution to Indian business and industry. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group

Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises, has been felicitated with numerous awards. Amongst them are the best Asian Telecom CEO by Telecom Asia, conferred in 2005 and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2004. Frost & Sullivan honoured him with the CEO of the Year, 2004. Sunil Mittal was conferred the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership award in 2007. He received the GSMA Chairmans Award 2008 for leading the growth in the Indian telecom sector. In 2007, he was chosen the Business Leader of the Year by NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards.

History
Sunil Bharti Mittal the founder Chairman and Group Managing Director started his business career in Punjab in 1976 as a small scale manufacturer. He branched out into telecom in 1984 and thus began an entrepreneurial adventure that would, in the years to come, establish Bharti as one of India's top five companies (in the private sector) and create one of the Indian economy's biggest success stories. History was in the making as the company blazed ever-new trails building India's first profitable mobile services company; busting the 100 year-old state fixed line and long distance monopolies; becoming the first Indian company to offer comprehensive telecom services overseas; emerging as India's largest manufacturer and exporter of terminals; and building India's most powerful telecom brand Airtel. The list is endless. Through innovations and interventions, from new services and fresh products, Bharti has made a big difference to the lives of its customers.

mobile services covered over 62 million customers on its network. In addition, the brand now operates broadband (DSL) and telephone services (fixed line) in over 94 cities across the country. It has more than 1.8 million customers. In the long distance category, Airtel has the unique distinction of chopping tariffs by 90%. It has a network of over 26,000 route kilometres of optic fibre cable in the country and also operates a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects Chennai to Singapore. The enterprise services group is a solutionsbased communication group, especially created to deliver a high quality service to its customers through its portfolio of mobile, broadband, telephone, data and internet solutions.

Recent Developments
To expand the purview of its services Airtel has entered into many strategic partnerships. It has, for instance, partnered with Google to bring Google search to the Airtel Live mobile WAP portal. A strategic partnership with Microsoft presents a range of software and services that make available enterprise-class software bundled with connectivity solutions to small businesses that do not have dedicated IT resources. Airtel's Telemedia unit will soon launch Direct-To-Home (DTH TV). The Telemedia unit will become a complete communication-cum-entertainment service provider for the Indian household, with landline, broadband internet and DTH Cable TV.

Promotion
Bharti has positioned itself as a builder of partnerships in the telecom infrastructure. The company works assiduously on this image through seminars, participation in events and the creative use of commercials and sponsorships. Airtel is credited with introducing some exciting innovations like Easy Charge, Hello Tunes and Music-On-Demand. The organisation has bagged several awards

Product
Bharti offers a range of innovative telecom products and services under the brand name, Airtel, which provides a complete smorgasbord of teleservices: mobile, fixed line, long distance and enterprise. As on March 2008 Airtel's GSM

for marketing and brand excellence. The Airtel consumer brand has been felicitated with the prestigious World Communications Best Brand Award, as well as several brand, distribution and service excellence trophies over the last few years. Internal stakeholders and partners are motivated to Think Fresh. Deliver More.

Brand Values
Airtels vision is to be the most admired brand in India by 2010. It expects to achieve this by being the most favoured by customers, targeted by top talent and benchmarked by more businesses. Simply stated, its brand values are fresh, in-touch, can-do and on my side.

www.bhartiairtel.in
THINGS YOU DIDNT KNOW ABOUT

Airtel
The Airtel logo is a specially created wood mark that incorporates two rectangular forms which depict an open doorway The red and black colours of Airtels logo suggest vibrancy, innovation and dynamism through red and expertise, solidity and scale through black Airtel is the fifth largest telecom company in the world Each day Airtels networks register more than 1 billion minutes or 1900 years of talk time By tomorrow 100,000 new people will have subscribed to Airtel services Airtel is the world's first mobile service to screen a full-length film on a mobile phone