Qtel slashes calling rates to South Asia
Qtel has announced that it has lowered the calling rates for international calls to India, Nepal and Sri Lanka so that people can connect during the Spring Festival of Holi.
The new offer means that Hala customers can call India, Nepal and Sri Lanka for US$0.10 per minute.
Bharti soon to launch 3G services (India)
Sanjay Kapoor Bharti Airtel’s, Chief Executive for India and South Asia has stated that the company will launch its 3G mobile services very soon.
Bharti Airtel had 149.4 million mobile customers in India at end-November, in a market of more than 700 million mobile users. India is the world’s fastest-growing and the second-biggest market for mobile connections.
Bharti Airtel in discussion with other operators for pan-India 3G alliance
Bharti Airtel is in discussion with other mobile operators, including Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, to structure a planned alliance to propose 3G services on a pan-India level.
The alliance is made necessary because not even a single operator won the 3G spectrum in all the circles, but Bharti Airtel won the spectrum in 13 circles, Vodafone has 3G airwaves in nine and Idea in 11 circles.
According to Mr Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, Bharti Airtel- India and South Asia, the talks were on with other players. The very fact that the 3G auctions have been a fractured verdict leaves a lot of opportunity for collaboration. All preparations are on to make sure the company offer pan-Indian 3G experience to the customers. By and large, usage alliances will happen within the Government rules and regulation.
Whilst Kapoor did not reveal the names of the operators in the alliance or the nature of the proposed partnership, but he further revealed that the deal will be firmed up before the company starts rolling out its 3G services by December. According to Industry sources, Vodafone and Idea could be the likely partners.
The three operators are planning to have 3G spectrum athwart all the circles in the country excluding Orissa. Bharti, Vodafone and Idea also mutually own Indus Tower, which will allow them to share basic infrastructure for 3G rollout.
According to Mr Kapoor, Airtel will begin 3G roll outs starting with the metros for which deals with equipment suppliers are close to being finalized. On the price of 3G services to consumers, he added that the high cost of spectrum combined with the fact that each operator has only 5 Mhz of bandwidth will ensure that there will not be any unlimited plans.
While asking on the availability of 3G devices, Mr Kapoor alleged that high-end smartphone devices such as iPhone will not get much traction because the Indian mobile market is largely pre-paid, and therefore, there is no scope for offering subsidy on devices like in the US. The massification of data will happen on lower end Smartphones. India and China will dictate the device market therefore, the moment these two markets get uptake on data by next year Smartphones will be available at US$50.
IBM to manage Bharti Airtel’s IT operations in Africa
Bharti Airtel and IBM have joined hands to renovate the budding African mobile communications market and increase the economic development athwart the continent.IBM has bagged a 10-year agreement in principle will extend innovative relationship that began in 2004. IBM will handle IT for Bharti Airtel’s 16 operations in Africa.
The deal will enable Bharti Airtel to provide innovative and affordable 2G and 3G mobile services across the continent.
According to Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director, Bharti Airtel, there are huge opportunities throughout Africa to transform how people communicate and how communities interact. Delivering on that opportunity through affordable mobile communications for everyone is our focus. The company is delighted to extend the successful relationship with IBM in South Asia to Africa. This transformational business delivery model, which will be a first in Africa’s telecom industry, will bring enhanced efficiencies to the company’s operations and help the company to deliver world-class mobile services to the customers.
According to a Deloitte report commissioned by the mobile communications industry association GSMA, only 40 out of every 100 Africans have a mobile phone. However, demand is growing at an average rate of 25% annually, and a % rise in mobile penetration could increase gross domestic product by 1.2% in developing markets. The partnership will enable the telecom operator to expand its network and systems to cater to more than 100 million African customers by 2012.
Once the deal is done, IBM will handle customer service for Bharti and provide the hardware, software and services to run everything from billing and call-traffic management to delivering new services like music and video.
According to Samuel J Palmisano, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, IBM, the company has achieved great success together in India, and now we are bringing that model to Africa. By building a 21st century telecommunications infrastructure for the continent in effect, treating all of Africa as a system of systems the company expects to help spark transformation not just in communications but across all sectors of society empowering businesses, governments and individual citizens to connect, innovate and achieve economic growth.
Ericsson wins Airtel’s $1.3-billion contract to upgrade network
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Swedish company, Ericsson has announced in April that it bagged a $1.3 billion contract to expand and upgrade Bharti Airtel’s network in 15 of India’s 22 telecom circles.
As per the company, the agreement will enable Airtel to put in place a converged network and expanded coverage in rural India. Airtel users will enjoy an enhanced voice quality and faster data access. This contract comes within 24 hours of Bharti Airtel sealing the agreement to buy Zain’s African assets for $10.7-billion vaulting into the ranks of the world’s top five cellular players by subscribers.
According to, Bharti Airtel CEO (India and South Asia) Sanjay Kapoor, the extension of our 15 years association with Ericsson is testimony to the strength of the relationship as well as the success of the model.
The deal will ensure that Ericsson supplies radio base stations, circuit and packet core, microwave transmission and intelligent network.
Bharti Airtel hails $10.7-billion deal with Zain Africa
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The cat is out of the bag. The most talked about deal of the season has been consummated. And India is truly established as the first post-Independence multinational. The highly developed telecom sector of India has now come to the forefront of the world business model.
By signing the final $10.7-billion deal with Zain Africa for all its African assets, Bharti Airtel has finally got the big ticket global acquisition. According to Bharti Airtel CEO, Sunil Bharti Mittal, as soon as the regulatory approvals fall in place, $8.3 billion will get transferred and the remaining $700 million will be transferred after one year.
It has also been revealed by Sunil Mittal that Airtel will rebrand Zain in Africa within months of closing the deal. The company made it clear that there is no need of strategy for the turnaround for Zain. The company has been really doing well occupying the top slot in 10 countries, second in four countries and fourth in just one country i.e. Ghana. Besides, the company has $4 billion of top line and $1.2-billion EBIDTA.
Zain has also been making investments year on year and has invested $600-700 million and even $800 million in capex at times.
Manoj Kohli who has been heading the international operations outside South Asia will take the charge of the new operations in Africa as CEO. Operations of the firm will be led by the Africans and supported by key members of the Indian team who will move from India to Africa.
On the failure of the deal with the Africa’s top mobile operator MTN, Sunil Bharti opined that the deal with Zain is a bigger one as it provides Bharti Airtel to have its own brand, its own management, its own low-cost model and its outsourcing model. If the deal with MTN would have materialized, the company would have only got participation rights and co-management rights in the company.
Bharti to launch 3G service in India by year- end
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The 3G services will be launched by the leading telecom service provider Bharti Airtel by the year- end. According to Bharti Airtel CEO (India and South Asia) Sanjay Kapoor, company’s core network is 3G ready, billing, application and content ready and once bids are through services will take six to eight months after that.
Incidentally, the auction for 3G spectrum has been scheduled to take place on April 9, 2010 but the winning operators can only start the commercial launch after September 1, 2010. Bharti has bid for both 3G and BWA licenses. Airtel, which has a subscriber base of 124.6 million, has already have devices which are 3G ready.
Earlier this month, a deal was signed between Apple and Airtel to sell the iPhone 3GS in India and it also launched HTC Smart phone priced at Rs9,990 in partnership with HTC.
Indian telco Bharti Airtel restructures top brass
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Dr. Jai Menon, current CIO, Bharti Enterprises and Director Technology & Customer Service, Bharti Airtel, has been promoted to the rank of Group Director IT.
In his new role, Menon is required to establish security standards, build alliances with the likes of IBM, Google, Apple and Microsoft besides steering the various businesses of Bharti Enterprises on the IT front.
Amrita Gangotra, currently heading the IT operations at Bharti Airtel as CIO Mobile Services, has been announced as Director IT, Bharti Airtel (India and South Asia) and will report to Sanjay Kapoor, CEO.
Sanjay Kapoor appointed the CEO of Bharti Airtel
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Sanjay Kapoor has been named the chief executive for India and South Asia by Bharti Airtel, charged of shoring up the sagging revenues and profits of the country’s largest telecom firm. Current incumbent Manoj Kohli has been left free to spearhead the company’s aggressive global play.
Sanjay Kapoor will take his charge on April 1 and Manoj Kohli will move on to head Bharti’s newly-created international business division. According to managing director Sunil Mittal, the management changes had been brought about as the next phase of the telco’s journey required superior thrust and focused leadership.
The sales and operations specialist, Sanjay, did his MBA from Cranfield School of Management (UK) and graduated with Wharton Advanced Management Programme. He joined the company in 1998 from Xerox India, where he worked for 14 years and has been very instrumental in building Bharti’s mobile services, especially in the crucial Delhi market.
