Airtel crosses 50 million customer-mark in Africa
30 Nov 2011
Bharti Airtel, which forayed into Africa after its acquisition of Zain Telecom in June last year, has crossed the 50-million subscriber mark.
In the 17 months since Bharti acquired Zain's mobile operations in 16 African countries, it has added 14 million new mobile customers during this period, the New Delhi-based telecom operator said in a statement
It added, Bharti Airtel has targetted to achive 100 million users in Africa by March 2013.
''This milestone demonstrates our continued dedication and commitment to Africa,'' said Manoj Kohli, CEO (international) and joint managing director, Bharti Airtel, said in the statement.
''I would also like to thank the governments and regulators for their support and would like to reiterate that we share their vision of bridging the digital divide with affordable telecom services,'' he added.
In June 2010, Bharti Airtel completed its $9-billion acquisition of the African operations from Kuwait's Zain, making merged entity the world's fifth-largest wireless carrier by subscribers.