Bharti Airtel’s mobile subscriber base doubles to 200 million in four years
19 Feb 2014
India's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel's total subscriber base in the country has crossed 200 million, nearly four years after the company's subscriber base touched 100 million.
Airtel, which launched mobile operations in 1995, crossed the 100 million mark in 2009, it said in a statement.
''It is gratifying to see the trust our customers have reposed in our brand and it will be our endeavor to continue delighting them with innovative and world-class services. We will also continue to invest towards building a robust data network of the future and be at the forefront of India's mobile broadband revolution,'' said Gopal Vittal, joint managing director and chief executive officer (India) at Bharti Airtel.
Airtel offers 2G, 3G, 4G, mobile commerce and other value added services in the country. It has 1.5 million outlets, with network presence in 5,121 census and 460,655 non-census towns and villages in India covering about 86.7 per cent of the country's population. Airtel also has the largest rural mobile customer base in India with over 88 million mobile customers.
The company ranks as the fourth largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers.
MILESTONES
- 1994 – Wins GSM licence for mobile service in Delhi & NCR
- 1995 – Launches service under the 'Airtel' brand name
- 1997 – Crosses 100,000 customer mark
- 1998 – Launches private fixed line service in Indore, Madhya Pradesh
- 2001 – Launches Network i2i, a submarine cable company, with Singtel
- 2002 – Goes public, completes 100 per cent book building issue
- 2002 – Launches international long distance service
- 2005 – Gets all-India telecom footprint
- 2008 – Crosses 60 million customer mark, Launches DTH service
- 2009 – Crosses 100-million customer mark
- 2009 – Expands operations to Sri Lanka
- 2010 – Expands operations to Bangladesh
- 2010 – Acquires Zain Telecom
- 2011 – Launches 3G services, 'airtel money' in India
- 2012 - Launches 4G service
- 2014 - Offers 4G service on mobile phones