India Telecom

September 4, 2002
Record subscribers for Bharti's AirTel in Mumbai

MUMBAI -- Bharti Televentures' brand AirTel, India's largest mobile phone operator with over two million subscribers, has crossed the one hundred thousand-subscriber mark in its latest operation in the Mumbai metro area. Bharti is the fourth operator in the metro and started operations only 40 days back.

The record average enlistment of 2,500 subscribers every day for the last 40 days takes the Bharti's record-breaking performance one notch up. It is already the top cellular operator in the Delhi metro area with about 7.5 lakh subscribers. It recently rolled out the service in eight new license areas and has almost 25 percent of the market share on an all-India basis. AirTel's services are available in the telecom circles of Delhi, Kolkatta, Mumbai, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharahstra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, UP (West), Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Company group chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal also called the record breaking two million subscribers all over India as "a testimony to the trust and faith our customers have in AirTel." Bharti also completed the rollout in the new license areas in record time.

On the record subscriptions in Mumbai Metro area despite being the last of the four operators to enter the market, Mittal said: "What other operators have achieved in one to two years, Bharti has done in just over a month. In July 2002, one out of every two people buying a mobile across India chose AirTel. We are truly proud to be spearheading the mobile revolution in the country."

On the marketing strategy of Bharti in Mumbai, Sanjay Kapoor, executive director, Bharti Cellular Ltd, the group company handling the license in that city, said: "We leveraged our pan-India footprint to offer some never before benefits to our customers. These have succeeded in re-defining customer expectations and are fuelling growth of the mobile category in the Western region." The benefits included a 30-second pulse, free roaming on AirTel networks across the country, incoming calls free from any AirTel to AirTel mobile and free airtime on one international, one national and one local number without any monthly charges. Bharti Cellular has invested Rs 1500 crores in the Western region. This investment is to be raised further as the roll out gathers more momentum.