Airtel: A Global Indian Brand

Founder

This company is the brainchild of Sunil Mittal, who has worked hard for his company from when he assembled landline phones to his puschase of a cellular network in India when it was just a fldgeling concept, to making it a household name within a span of a mere 20 years.

Company Profile

The company went through some amazing strategic planning. The goal was always larger than life. Sunil Bharti Mittal rebranded all of his mobile telecom ventures under a single brand named Airtel in 2003. The company has grown to be India’s largest mobile operator, with consistent hard work and everyday innovation.

Airtel had always adopted various cutting edge strategies to be one step ahead of competition. From acquiring regional operators in its early years, rebranding entire operations under one umbrella to outsourcing activities to various corporations, Airtel always set standards in the industry.

They are the only company who has every part of its operation  except marketing, sales and finance and building the 'minutes factory' model of low cost and high volumes, outsourced. Their equipment partner is Ericsson, and Nokia and  IT support is provided by IBM.

Airtel built a smart “Minutes Factory” model aiming at low cost and high volume output. By outsourcing daily operations and retaining core functions like finance, sales, marketing and management, the brand built sustainable business model that worked wonders over a period of time for the company.

The CEO of the company right now is Gopal Vittal,and the Chairman and Managing Director is Sunil Mittal, the man himself.

Global Expansion

Airtel operates in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, a few countries in African continent and the Channel Islands. They are one of the largest mobile operator network in the world in terms of subcribers, and has a commercial presense in over 20 countries.

Its area of operations include:

• The Indian Subcontinent:
• Airtel India, in India
• Airtel Sri Lanka, in Sri Lanka
• Airtel Bangladesh, in Bangladesh
• Airtel Africa, which operates in 17 African countries:
• Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
• The British Crown Dependency islands of Jersey and Guernsey, under the brand name Airtel-Vodafone, through an agreement with Vodafone.

Marketing Strategies

In 2004, Airtel went ballistic with glitzy ideas. The collaboration with world famous music composer A R Rahman brought about their theme song which was an instant hit among subscribers. The tune went on to make a unique place in Airtel’s history. The company rebranded itself in 2010 with a new logo and a new theme song to establish global identity. 

Today, company offers various products such as 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, High Speed Internet, Fixed line telephony and DTH services. In a span of 19 years, the company went from offering mobile telephony services in one city in India to expanding its operations in over 20 countries.

Being 4^th largest mobile operator in the world with a subscriber base of over 250 million, the story of Airtel’s success will forever motivate those who dare to dream.