INTRODUCTION

Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (BTVL) is India's largest and world's third largest cellular service provider with more than 82 million subscribers as of December 2008. It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. SingTel owns over 30% of the Bharti Telecom. Vodafone is also a shareholder of Airtel with 4% of the shares. Thus making it a sister company of the brand The Bharti Group has a diverse business portfolio and has created global brands in the telecommunication sector. Bharti has recently forayed into retail business as Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. under a MoU with Wal-Mart for the cash & carry business. It has successfully launched an international venture with EL Rothschild Group to export fresh agric - products exclusively to markets in Europe and USA and has launched Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd under a joint venture with AXA, world leader in financial protection and wealth management. Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited, Indias largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider with a footprint in all the 23 telecom circles. Bharti Airtel since its inception has been at the forefront of technology and has steered the course of the telecom sector in the country with its world class products and services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three

individual strategic business units (SBUs) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services & Enterprise Services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM... 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 landline 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.) are 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 [200910], Bharti has roped in a strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the Telemedia Business. Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Sunil Mittal was into an agreement with Germany's Siemens to manufacture the company's pushbutton telephone models for the Indian market. In 1986, Sunil Bharti Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) and his company became the first in India to offer push-button telephones, establishing the basis of Bharti Enterprises. This first-mover advantage allowed Sunil Mittal to expand his manufacturing capacity elsewhere in the telecommunications market. By the early 1990s, Sunil Mittal had also launched the country's first fax machines and its first cordless telephones. In 1992, Sunil Mittal won a bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In 1995, Sunil Mittal incorporated the

cellular operations as Bharti Tele-Ventures and launched service in Delhi. In 1996, cellular service was extended to Himachal Pradesh. 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 Calcutta. 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 rebranded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended Airtel has nationwide presence and is the market leader with a market share of almost completely(as of May 2010). It is 6th most valued brand according to an annual survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic Times in 2010. [15] On 19 October 2004, Airtel announced the launch of a BlackBerry Wireless Solution in India. The launch is a result of a tie-up between Bharti TeleVentures Limited and Research In Motion (RIM). The Apple iPhone 3G was rolled out in India on 22 August 2008 by Airtel & Vodafone. Both the cellular service providers rolled out their Apple iPhone 3GS in the first quarter of 2010. However, high prices and contract bonds discouraged consumers and it was not as successful for both the service providers as much as the iPhone is successful in other markets of the world. The Apple iPhone 4 was introduced on 27 May 2011 by Airtel & Aircel.

its network to AndaWorldwide Presence

Coverage map of Bharti Airtel across 19 countries

Airtel is the 5th largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and has a commercial presence in 19 countries and the Channel Islands. Its area of operations include:

The Indian Subcontinent: o Airtel Bangla, in Bangladesh o Airtel, in India o Airtel Sri Lanka, in Sri Lanka Airtel Africa, which operates in 16 African countries: o Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, 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

man and NicobarAirtel has nationwide presence and is the market leader with a market share of almost completely(as of May 2010). It is 6th most valued brand according to an annual survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic Times in 2010. On 19 October 2004, Airtel announced the launch of a BlackBerry Wireless Solution in India. The launch is a result of a tie-up between Bharti TeleVentures Limited and Research In Motion (RIM). The Apple iPhone 3G was rolled out in India on 22 August 2008 by Airtel & Vodafone. Both the cellular service providers rolled out their Apple iPhone 3GS in the first quarter of 2010. However, high prices and contract bonds discouraged consumers and it was not as successful for both the service providers as much as the iPhone is successful in other markets of the world. The Apple iPhone 4 was introduced on 27 May 2011 by Airtel & Aircel.

3G
On May 18, 2010, 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel will have to pay the Indian government 12,295 crore (US$2.74 billion) for spectrum in 13 circles, the most amount spent by an operator in this auction. Airtel won 3G licences in 13 telecom circles of India: Delhi, On 20 September 2010, Bharti Airtel said that it has given contracts to Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Huawei Technologies to set up infrastructure for providing 3G services in the country. These vendors will plan, design, deploy and maintain 3G-HSPA (third generation, high speed packet access) networks in 13 telecom circles where the company has won 3G licences. While Bharti Airtel has awarded network contracts for seven 3G circles to Ericsson India, NSN would manage networks in three circles. Chinese telecom equipment vendor Huawei Technologies has been introduced as the third partner for three circles. On January 24, 2011, Airtel launched 3G services in Bangalore, Karnataka - its largest circle by revenue. With this launch, Airtel became the third private operator (fifth overall) to launch its 3G services in the country following Reliance Communications and Tata Docomo.On January 27, 2011, Airtel launched 3G in Chennai and Coimbatore. Airtel plans to cover 1,500 cities across 13 circles by the end of March 2012. The company, which has 3G licences for 13 circles, is also in talks with other service providers to roll out the services in the remaining 10 circles as part of its roaming offerings. Airtel had about 3 million 3G subscribers as of May 201

Telemedia
The Telemedia business provides services in 89 Indian cities and consists of two brands. Airtel Broadband provides broadband and IPTV services. Airtel provides both capped as well as unlimited download plans [reduced speeds at unlimited data are implied]. The maximum speed available for home users is 16Mbps.

Airtel Fixed Line which provides fixed line services. Airtel has about 3.16 million wireline customers, of which 42.6% are broadband/internet subscribers as of August 2010. Until September 18, 2004, Bharti provided fixed-line telephony and broadband services under the Touchtel brand. Bharti now provides all telecom services including fixedline services under a common brand "Airtel". Subscriber Base Bharti Airtel has about 207.8 million subscribers worldwide - 152.5 million in India, 50.3 million are in Africa, 3.2 million in Bangladesh and 1.8 million in Sri Lanka as of the end of 2010. The numbers include mobile

Acquisitions and Mergers

In May 2008, it emerged that Bharti 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. The 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 is in Talks with MTN and companies have now agreed discuss the potential transaction exclusively by July 31, 2009 Bharti Airtel said in a statement "Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to announce that it has renewed its effort for a significant partnership with MTN Group".Talks eventually ended without agreement, due to the South African government opposition.

Zain
In March 2010, Bharti struck a deal to buy the Kuwait firm's mobile operations in 15 African countries, in India's second biggest overseas acquisition after Tata Steel's $13 billion buy of Corus in 2007. Bharti Airtel

completed its $9 billion acquisition of African operations from Kuwait's Zain, making the firm the world's No. 5 wireless carrier by subscribers.

Airtel Franchise

What is a franchise? A franchise is a right granted to an individual or group to market a company's goods or services within a certain territory or location. Some examples of today's popular franchises are McDonald's, Subway, Domino's Pizza, and the UPS Store. There are many different types of franchises. Many people associate only fast food businesses with franchising. In fact, there are over 120 different types of franchise businesses available today, including automotive, cleaning & maintenance, health & fitness, financial services, and pet-related franchises, just to name a few.

If you are thinking about buying into a franchise system, it is important that you understand exactly how franchising works, what fees are involved, and what is expected of you from the franchise company. An individual who purchases and runs a franchise is called a "franchisee." The franchisee purchases a franchise from the "franchisor." The franchisee must follow certain rules and guidelines already established by the franchisor, and in most cases the franchisee must pay an ongoing franchise royalty fee, as well as an up-front, one-time franchise fee to the franchisor. Franchising has become one of the most popular ways of doing business in today's marketplace. In most states you cannot drive three blocks without seeing a nationally recognized franchise company.

The History of Franchising

Franchising began back in the 1850's when Isaac Singer invented the sewing machine. In order to distribute his machines outside of his geographical area, and also provide training to customers, Singer began selling licenses to entrepreneurs in different parts of the country. In 1955 Ray Kroc took over a small chain of food franchises and built it into today's most successful fast food franchise in the world, now known as McDonald's. McDonald's currently has the most franchise units worldwide of any franchise system. Today, franchising is helping thousands of individuals be their own boss and own and operate their own business. Franchising allows entrepreneurs to be in business for themselves, but not by themselves. There is usually a much higher likelihood of success when an individual opens a franchise as opposed to a mom and pop business, since a proven business formula is in place. The products, services, and business operations have already been established.

Advantages of Buying a Franchise

Corporate image - The corporate image and brand awareness of the company is already established. Consumers are always more comfortable purchasing items from a familiar name or company they trust. Training - The franchisor usually provides extensive training and support to the franchise owner. Savings in time - Since the franchise company already has the business model in place you can focus on running a successful business.

The Role of the Franchisee

The first function you have in your new endeavor is as an investor into your business. You will need to invest financially with an initial franchising fee, but also be prepared to pay any additional costs that might be necessary to get the business up and running such as equipment costs. Also, there will be ongoing ro Secondly, you will need to be sure that you can invest an adequate amount of time in the business. Although the system is basically set up in franchising, you will still need to initially spend extra time learning how the system works. The franchisor usually offers training and continuous support, hence the ongoing royalty payments. Like anything else, once you know the ins and outs of the system, the time investment decreases . yalty fees that you will need to be aware of.