Airtel becomes top network in Africa

KAMPALA, Uganda – World Cellular Information Service (WCIS)  last week named India-based Bharti Airtel the largest operator in Africa in terms of geographical footprint with the widest 3G and M-commerce networks.

Launched in 1995, World Cellular Information Service (WCIS) is the cellular world’s benchmark source of accurate, robust data and forecasts.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, the Chairman, Bharti Airtel, said, “This is a major landmark in the journey of Airtel and underlines the strength of our business model and our brand that is loved by customers across 20 countries.

“I want to thank our employees and our business partners for supporting us through this exciting journey and with the mobile internet play about to happen in the developing world, things will only get brighter from here on.” he said.

According to the latest data published by WCIS, Airtel with over 303 million mobile subscribers across its operations, has moved up one position in the global rankings behind China Mobile and Vodafone Group.

In Africa, Bharti Airtel is the largest mobile operator on the continent in terms of geographical footprint.

Company officials say they offer 2G, 3G services and Airtel Money across all 17 countries in Africa.

Airtel Money is also one of the largest and fastest growing m-commerce services on the continent and with data adoption leading the growth on the continent.

Airtel began operations in November 1995 in New Delhi (India) and in less than two decades it has emerged as one of the top brands in the emerging markets with an unmatched scale and diversity of operations. The Company pioneered the low-cost business model based on outsourcing that has allowed it to expand its services rapidly and give customers affordable access to mobile telephony.

According to a press release, Airtel has India’s widest 3G footprint, offering customers high-speed internet access and a host of innovative services like Mobile TV, video calls, live-streaming videos and gaming.

Airtel is the only mobile operator in India to offer 4G services in over 30 cities using TD – LTE and FDD – LTE technology, providing customers the fastest wireless services with buffer-less HD video streaming and multi-tasking capabilities.

Going forward, Airtel plans to launch ultrafast 4G services in India’s first FDD -LTE on 1800 MHz in six circles.

Mittal, who is already a  millionaire over said last week, “Today, we seamlessly manage global scale operations in diverse geographies and deliver the same world-class services to each customers, this perhaps is one of our biggest achievements.