Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, Airtel provides 4G and LTE Advanced services all over India and 5G service in selected cities. Currently offered services include fixed-line broadband, and voice services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel had also rolled out its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology across all Indian telecom circles. It is the second largest mobile network operator in India and the second largest mobile network operator in the world. Airtel was named India’s 2nd most valuable brand in the first ever Brandz ranking by Millward Brown and WPP plc.
Airtel is credited with pioneering the strategic management of outsourcing all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the ‘minutes factory’ model of low cost and high volumes. The strategy has since been adopted by several operators. Airtel’s equipment is provided and maintained by Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia Networks whereas IT support is provided by Amdocs. The transmission towers are maintained by subsidiaries and joint venture companies of Bharti including Bharti Infratel (merged with Indus Towers) and Indus Towers in India.
Official Customer Care & Support Information
| Office Address | Airtel Center, Plot No. 16, Udyog Vihar Phase IV, Gurgaon- 122015 |
| Registered Address | Bharti Telemedia Limited Plot No 16,Udhyog Vihar, Phase IV, Airtel Center Gurgaon, Haryana, India – 122015 |
| Contact Number | +91-98 9809 8980 |
| Customer Care Number | 121 |
| Complaint Helpline | 198 |
| Email ID | [email protected] |
| Airtel Payment Bank | 8800688006 |
| DTH | 12150 |
| Payment Bank | 400 |
| Postpaid | 9898012345 |
| Working Hours | Monday to Friday: 9:30 am to 6:30 pm |
| Website | https://www.airtel.in/ |
| Download App | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.myairtelapp |
Bharti Airtel History
In 1984, Sunil Mittal started assembling push-button phones in India, which he earlier used to import from a Singaporean company, Singtel, replacing the old-fashioned, bulky rotary phones that were in use in the country then. Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated and entered into a technical tie-up with Siemens AG of Germany for the manufacture of electronic push-button phones. By the early 1990s, Bharti was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear. He named his first push-button phone as ‘Mitbrau’.
In 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network licenses auctioned in India. One of the conditions for the Delhi cellular licenses was that the bidder have some experience as a telecom operator. So, Mittal clinched a deal with the French telecom group Vivendi. He was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecom business as a major growth area. His plans were finally approved by the Government in 1994 and he launched services in Delhi in 1995, when Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel. Within a few years, Bharti became the first telecom company to cross the 2 million mobile subscriber mark. Bharti also brought down the STD/ISD cellular rates in India under the brand name ‘India one’.
In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended cellular operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti acquired control of Skycell Communications, in Chennai. In 2001, the company acquired control of Spice Cell in Kolkata. Bharti Enterprises went public in 2002, and the company was listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, the cellular phone operations were re-branded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar. This expansion allowed it to offer voice services all across India.
Airtel launched “Hello Tunes”, a caller ring back tone service (Ringing Tone), in July 2004 becoming the first operator in India to do so. The Airtel theme song, composed by A.R. Rahman, was the most popular tune in that year.
In May 2008, it emerged that Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company with coverage in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by an Indian firm. However, both sides emphasize the tentative nature of the talks, while The Economist magazine noted, “If anything, Bharti would be marrying up,” as MTN has more subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage. However, the talks fell apart as MTN Group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company. In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it was in talks with MTN and the companies agreed to discuss the potential transaction exclusively by 31 July 2009. Talks eventually ended without agreement, some sources stating that this was due to opposition from the South African government.
In 2009, Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the fixed-line business. Later, Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network across the country. This would help consumers access internet at faster-speed and high-quality internet browsing on mobile handsets.
In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In June 2010, Bharti acquired the African business of Zain Telecom for $10.7 billion making it the largest ever acquisition by an Indian telecom firm.[19] In 2012, Bharti tied up with Walmart, the US retail giant, to start a number of retail stores across India. In 2014, Bharti planned to acquire Loop Mobile for ₹7 billion (US$88 million), but the deal was called off later.
On 18 November 2010, Airtel rebranded itself in India in the first phase of a global rebranding strategy. The company unveiled a new logo with ‘airtel’ written in lower case. Designed by London-based brand agency, Superunion, the new logo is the letter ‘a’ in lowercase, with ‘airtel’ written in lowercase under the logo. On 23 November 2010, Airtel’s Africa operations were rebranded to ‘airtel’. Sri Lanka followed on 28 November 2010 and on 20 December 2010, Warid Telecom rebranded to ‘airtel’ in Bangladesh.
Customer Care Numbers for Airtel Postpaid
| Chennai / Tamil Nadu | 9894012345 |
| AP and Telangana | 9849012345 |
| Assam | 9954012345 |
| Bihar and Jharkhand | 9934012345 |
| Delhi NCR | 9810012345 |
| Gujarat | 9898012345 |
| Haryana | 9896012345 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 9816012345 |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 9906012345 |
| Karnataka | 9845012345 |
| Kerala | 9895012345 |
| Kolkata | 9831012345 |
| MP and Chattisgarh | 9893012345 |
| Maharashtra and Goa | 9890012345 |
| North East | 9862012345 |
| Mumbai | 9892012345 |
| Orissa | 9937012345 |
| Punjab | 9815012345 |
| Rajasthan | 9829012345 |
| UP East | 9935012345 |
| UP West and Uttarakhand | 9897012345 |
| West Bengal | 9933012345 |
Customer Care Numbers for Airtel Prepaid
| Delhi | 9810198101 |
| UP East | 9935199351 |
| UP West | 9897098970 |
| Punjab | 9815098150 |
| Haryana | 9896098960 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 9816098160 |
| Assam | 9954099540 |
| Bihar | 9934099340 |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 9906099060 |
| Karnataka | 9845098450 |
| Kerala | 9895198951 |
| Kolkata | 9831098310 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 9893098930 |
| Maharashtra | 9890098900 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 9849098490 |
| Mumbai | 9892098920 |
| Orissa | 9937099370 |
| TN / Chennai | 9894198941 |
| Rajasthan | 9950099500 |
| Gujarat | 9898098980 |
| Shillong | 9862098620 |
| West Bengal | 9933099330 |
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