Bharti subsidiary to operate telecom services in Jersey in Europe
By Our Corporate Bureau | 09 May 2006
Mumbai: Jersey Telenet Ltd., a subsidiary of Bharti Global, the offshore investment company of Bharti Group, has been granted a license to run comprehensive telecom services in Jersey. Services for which license has been granted include 2G and 3G mobile services and international long distance services.
This is Bharti Global's second international telecom venture. Telecom Seychelles, a subsidiary of Bharti Global, has been offering mobile and basic telephone services in Seychelles since 1998 under the Airtel brand.
The company proposes to invest over £20 million pounds in setting up a state of the art network that is expected to be operational from October 2006. The network and IT systems will be set up in partnership with two global companies - Nokia will be setting up the telecom infrastructure and IBM will be the IT solutions provider. Expertise will be drawn from group company Bharti Airtel, which is the largest mobile service provider in India.
According to Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group managing director, Bharti, "We are delighted at this opportunity to provide telecom services in Jersey. Having spearheaded the growth of the telecom sector in India, Bharti is committed to providing world-class telecom services now in Jersey as well. The acquisition of telecom license in Jersey will be a springboard for other opportunities that may be present globally."
Jersey is the southern-most island of the British Isles and is a part of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. Located off the coast of Normandy in France, Jersey is a parliamentary democracy and a dependency of the British Crown. It has a per capita income of over $40,000. Jersey is an international finance centre with 55 banks and over 33,000 registered companies. Tourism is also an important contributor to the Island's GDP.
In India Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company, is one of India's leading private sector provider of telecommunication services with over 20.93 million customers as of March '06.