Bharti Airtel is an Indian telecommunications company that operates in 19 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. It is the largest cellular service provider in India with over 143 million subscribers as of September 2010. Airtel offers mobile services, fixed line services, broadband and television services. It has expanded rapidly due to strategic partnerships and by being the first mobile operator to outsource its network maintenance.

1. AIRTEL
Bharti Airtel, usually referred to simply as "airtel", is an Indian
telecommunications company that operates in 19 countries across South Asia, Africa and
the Channel Islands. It operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3G
services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the fifth largest telecom
operator in the world with over 190 million subscribers as of September 30, 2010. It is
the largest cellular service provider in India, with over 143 million subscribers as of
September 30, 2010. Airtel is the 3rd largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber
base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. It has a 29.00% market share of the GSM
mobile service in India.
Airtel also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its telecom
services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the
first Indian telecom service provider to achieve this Cisco Gold Certification. To earn
Gold Certification, Bharti Airtel had to meet rigorous standards for networking
competency, service, support and customer satisfaction set forth by Cisco. The company
also provides land-line telephone services and broadband Internet access (DSL) in over
96 cities in India. It also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance
communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai,
which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.
It is known for being the first mobile phone company in the world to outsource
everything except marketing and sales and finance. Its network (base stations, microwave
links, etc.) is maintained by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Huawei., business
support by IBM and transmission towers by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in
India). Ericsson agreed for the first time, to be paid by the minute for installation and
maintenance of their equipment rather than being paid up front. This enabled the
company to provide pan-India phone call rates of Rs. 1/minute (U$0.02/minute). Call
rates have come down much further. During the last financial year [2009-10], Bharti has
roped in a strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the
Telemedia Business.
The company is structured into four strategic business units - Mobile, Telemedia,
Enterprise and Digital TV. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and
telephone services in 89 Indian cities. The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home
TV services across India. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions
to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to telcos.
In January 2010, company announced that Manoj Kohli, Joint Managing Director
and current Chief Executive Officer of Indian and South Asian operations, will become
the Chief Executive Officer of the International Business Group from 1 April 2010. He
will be overseeing Bharti's overseas business. Current Dy. CEO, Sanjay Kapoor, will
replace Manoj Kohli and will be the CEO, effective from 1 April 2010.

2. SWOT Analysis
Strengths
• Bharti Airtel has more than 65 million customers (July 2008). It is the largest
cellular provider in India, and also supplies broadband and telephone services - as
well as many other telecommunications services to both domestic and corporate
customers.
• Other stakeholders in Bharti Airtel include Sony-Ericsson, Nokia - and Sing Tel,
with whom they hold a strategic alliance. This means that the business has access
to knowledge and technology from other parts of the telecommunications world.
• The company has covered the entire Indian nation with its network. This has
underpinned its large and rising customer base.
Weaknesses
• An often cited original weakness is that when the business was started by Sunil
Bharti Mittal over 15 years ago, the business has little knowledge and experience
of how a cellular telephone system actually worked. So the start-up business had
to outsource to industry experts in the field.
• Until recently Airtel did not own its own towers, which was a particular strength
of some of its competitors such as Hutchison Essar. Towers are important if your
company wishes to provide wide coverage nationally.
• The fact that the Airtel has not pulled off a deal with South Africa's MTN could
signal the lack of any real emerging market investment opportunity for the
business once the Indian market has become mature.
Opportunities
• The company possesses a customized version of the Google search engine which
will enhance broadband services to customers. The tie-up with Google can only
enhance the Airtel brand, and also provides advertising opportunities in Indian for
Google.
• Global telecommunications and new technology brands see Airtel as a key
strategic player in the Indian market. The new iPhone will be launched in India
via an Airtel distributorship. Another strategic partnership is held with
BlackBerry Wireless Solutions.
• Despite being forced to outsource much of its technical operations in the early
days, this allowed Airtel to work from its own blank sheet of paper, and to
question industry approaches and practices - for example replacing the Revenue-
Per-Customer model with a Revenue-Per-Minute model which is better suited to
India, as the company moved into small and remote villages and towns.

3. • The company is investing in its operation in 120,000 to 160,000 small villages
every year. It sees that less well-off consumers may only be able to afford a few
tens of Rupees per call, and also so that the business benefits are scalable - using
its 'Matchbox' strategy.
• Bharti Airtel is embarking on another joint venture with Vodafone Essar and Idea
Cellular to create a new independent tower company called Indus Towers. This
new business will control more than 60% of India's network towers. IPTV is
another potential new service that could underpin the company's long-term
strategy.
Threats
• Airtel and Vodafone seem to be having an on/off relationship. Vodafone which
owned a 5.6% stake in the Airtel business sold it back to Airtel, and instead
invested in its rival Hutchison Essar. Knowledge and technology previously
available to Airtel now moves into the hands of one of its competitors.
• The quickly changing pace of the global telecommunications industry could tempt
Airtel to go along the acquisition trail which may make it vulnerable if the world
goes into recession. Perhaps this was an impact upon the decision not to proceed
with talks about the potential purchase of South Africa's MTN in May 2008. This
opened the door for talks between Reliance Communication's Anil Ambani and
MTN, allowing a competing Inidan industrialist to invest in the new emerging
African telecommunications market.
• Bharti Airtel could also be the target for the takeover vision of other global
telecommunications players that wish to move into the Indian market.
PEST Analysis
Political
• 1985 Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was established to grow telecom
industry.
• Earlier tariff rates were high because of high taxes. Now they are the lowest in the
world.
• Government replaced the license scheme with revenue sharing scheme and extended the
license period for 10 to 20 years.
Social
•Perception as “a brand of successful people”
Economical
•Earlier inflation rates were high
•Great economic growth and continued growth of India’s economy registered a growth of
21%

4. Technological
•First cellular service to provide roaming service and other value added services.
•Efficient customer care services.
•E-commerce portal.
•Introduced and involves in Broadband services, long distance services, and internet
services.
Conclusion
•Most successful brand in India with the largest market share.
•Success is based on three pillars – connectivity, affordability and innovation.
•The core is connectivity i.e. the network.
•Does not promote its product always by celebrities.
•Pre paid services is more expensive than post paid services.