Bharti Airtel 10th in global 100 infotech list

By Our Corporate Bureau | 26 Jun 2006

Mumbai: Bharti Airtel, the country's largest cellphone service provider, ranks 10th in the list of top 100 infotech firms published by BusinessWeek magazine. Four other Indian companies — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and Satyam - also figure in the annual BusinessWeek ranking of world's top 100 infotech / telecom companies.

Mexico's America Movil and Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision held on to their number one and number two positions, respectively.

India and Hong Kong share fourth spot with five companies each among the top 100.

The United States with 45, Taiwan with 13 and Japan with 9 companies take the top three slots while China has no company in the top 100 list.

Bharti Airtel's ranking is ahead of international biggies like Motorola (11th), Google (13th), Microsoft (37th) and Hewlett-Packard (44th). The ranking is based on Bharti Airtel's stature as the largest cell phone player in India and takes into consideration its outsourcing of network management to Nokia and Ericsson TCS, the magazine said. Airtel is India's top tech player and its focus this year will be on expanding deeper into Latin America and China.

Infosys, the survey pointed out, is expanding its employee base beyond India and hiring from top US and European schools. 

The BusinessWeek survey was based on factors like the rate of return on equity, revenue growth, shareholder return, and total revenues to assess companies.

The Top Ten
1. America Movil (Mexico)
2. Hon Hai Precision (Taiwan)
3. High Tech Computer (Taiwan)
4. Apple Computers (the US)
5. Softbank (Japan)
6. Telefonica Moviles (Spain)
7. Telefonica (Spain)
8. China Mobile (Hong Kong)
9. Nokia (Finland)
10. Bharti Airtel (India)