Sunil Bharti Mittal born 23 October 1957) is an Indian telecom mogul, philanthropist and the founder, chairman and

Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises. The US$8.3 billion turnover company runs India's largest GSM-based mobile phone service and world's fifth largest wireless company with over 190 million customers across 19 countries in Asia and Africa. He is the son of Sat Paul (former MP) and Lalita.[1] Sunil Bharti Mittal at the World Economic Forum in Davos,
2007 Born 23 October 1957 (age 54) Ludhiana, Punjab, India Residence South Delhi, India Nationality Indian Alma mater Punjab University[1] Occupation Chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises Net worth Children 3[1] $8.3 billion (2011)[2] Religion Hinduism Spouse Nyna[1]

In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honor.[4]

Contents
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1 Early life 2 Entrepreneurial ventures 3 Personal life 4 Awards and Recognition 5 Philanthropy 6 References 7 External links
Bharti Airtel Limited

Type Industry Founded Founder(s)

Public company BSE: 532454 NSE: BHARTIARTL Telecommunications 7 July 1995 Sunil Bharti Mittal

Headquarters New Delhi, India Area served Key people South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands Sunil Bharti Mittal
(Chairman) and (MD)

Products Revenue Operating income Profit Total assets Total equity Employees Parent

Fixed-line and mobile telephony, broadband and fixed-line internet services, digital television, IPTV and network services $9.290 billion (2010)[1] $2.313 billion (2010)[1] $2.079 billion (2010)[1] $15.527 billion (2010)[1] $9.491 billion (2010)[1] 22,858 (June 2011)[1] Bharti Enterprises (63.45%) SingTel (32.15%) Vodafone (4.4%) Airtel Africa Airtel Digital TV Bharti Airtel Lanka Airtel Bangla www.airtel.com

Subsidiaries

Website

Bharti Airtel Limited (NSE: BHARTIARTL, BSE: 532454), commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian telecommunications company that operates in 20 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 about 230.8 million subscribers across 19 countries at the end of June 2011.[2] It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with over 173.73 million subscribers at the end of October 2011.[3] Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television 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.[4] 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.) are maintained by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Huawei,[5] business support by IBM and transmission towers by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in India).[6] 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.[7] During the last financial year [200910], Bharti has roped in a strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the Telemedia Business.

[edit] Early life

Sunil Mittal was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. His father, Sat Pal Mittal, had been the Member of Parliament (M.P) from Ludhiana. He first joined the Wynberg Allen School in Mussoorie,[5] but later attended Scindia School at Gwalior and he graduated in 1976 from Punjab University, Chandigarh, with a Bachelor of Arts and Science for which he studied in Arya College for Boys, a local college in Ludhiana.[6] His father died of cardiac arrest in 1992.[1]

[edit] Entrepreneurial ventures

A first generation entrepreneur, Mittal started his first business in April 1976[7] at the age of 18, with a capital investment of 20,000 (US$380) borrowed from his father. His first business was to make crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers.[8] In 1980, he along with his brothers Rakesh, Rajan started an Import Enterprise named Bharti Overseas Trading Corporation.[5] He sold his bicycle parts and yarn factories and moved to Mumbai.[8] In 1981, he purchased importing licences from exporting companies in Punjab.[7] He then imported thousands of Suzuki Motors's portable electric-power generators from Japan. The importing of generators was suddenly banned by the then Indian Government and just two licences to manufacture generators in India were issued to two companies.[citation needed] In 1984, he started assembling push-button phones in India,[7] which he earlier used to import from a Taiwan company, Kingtel, 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 manufacture of electronic push button phones. By the early 1990s, Mittal was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear. Mittal says, "In 1983, the government imposed a ban on the import of gensets. I was out of business overnight. Everything I was doing came to a screeching halt. I was in trouble. The question then was: what should I do next? Then, opportunity came calling. While in Taiwan, I noticed the popularity of the push-button phone -- something which India hadn't seen then. We were still using those rotary dials with no speed dials or redials. I sensed my chance and embraced the telecom business. I started marketing telephones, answering/fax machines under the brand name Beetel and the company picked up really fast.".[1] He named his first push-button phones as 'Mitbro'.[5] In 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network licences auctioned in India.[1] One of the conditions for the Delhi cellular license was that the bidder have some experience as a telecom operator. So, Mittal clinched a deal with the French telecom group Vivendi.[citation needed]

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[7] 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 brand name 'Indiaone'.[7] IndiaOne was Indias first private national as well as the international long-distance service provider, and, thus, became a major factor in Bharti's success by providing services cheaply.[citation needed] In November 2006, he struck a joint venture deal with Wal-Mart, the US retail giant, to start a number of retail stores across India.[citation needed] In July 2006, he attracted many key executives from Reliance ADAG, NIS Sparta and created Bharti Comtel.[citation needed] In May 2008, it emerged that Sunil Bharti Mittal 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.[9] However, the talks fell apart as MTN group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company.[3] 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. 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".[citation needed] Talks eventually ended without agreement, some sources stating that this was due to opposition from the South African government.[10]

[edit] Personal life

Mittal resides in Delhi. He is married and has three children.[citation needed]

[edit] Awards and Recognition

Transforming India Leader, NDTV Business Leader Awards 2008. GSMA Chairman's Award 2008. Padma Bhushan in 2007, from the President of India. Asia Businessman of the Year, Fortune Magazine 2006. Telecom Person of the Year, Voice & Data, 2006. CEO of the year 2005, at the Frost and Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT awards 2006. Best Asian Telecom CEO, Telecom Asia Awards 2005. Best CEO, India, Institutional Investor, 2005. Business Leader Of The Year, Economic Times, 2005. INSEAD Business Leader Award 2011[11]

[edit] Philanthropy
Mittal has also been working towards educating India through the Bharti Foundation. The foundation has established over 200 schools on its 2009 list of the world's top 25 philanthropists.
[12]

[edit] References

Sunil Bharti Mittal Sunil Bharti Mittal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2007 Born 23 October 1957 (age 54) Ludhiana, Punjab, India Residence South Delhi, India Nationality Indian Alma mater Punjab University[1] Occupation Chairman and Group CEO of Bharti EnterprisHistory
Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Sunil Mittal was into an agreement with Germany's Siemens to manufacture the company's push-button 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 its network to Andaman and Nicobar.'2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel began operating end Today, Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India and fifth largest in the world. [citation needed]citation needed

[edit] Organisational Structureedit

The organisational structure that existed till recently concentrated on the hierarchy of the operations(not services)inside the company as a whole. The structure depicts the corresponding operation/region of different in-charges and hence it didn't hold anyone responsible for each of its services. So, the company found it better to restructure its organisational chart and it came into implementation from 1 August. The transformed organisational structure will have two distinct Customer Business Units (CBU) with clear focus on B2C (Business to Customer) and B2B (Business to Business) segments. Bharti Airtel's B2C business unit will comprehensively service the retail consumers, homes and small offices, by combining the erstwhile business units Mobile, Telemedia, Digital TV, and other emerging businesses (like M-commerce, M-health, M-advertising etc.). The B2C organization will consist of Consumer Business and Market Operations.it is the largest telecommunication company in india

[edit] Worldwide presenceedit

Coverage map of Bharti Airtel across 20 countries Airtel is the 5th largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and has a commercial presence in 20 countries and the Channel Islands.Channel Islands Its area of operations include:

The Indian Subcontinent: Indian Subcontinent

Airtel Bangla Airtel Sri Lanka

Airtel, in India

Airtel Africa

 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.Crown DependencyAirtelVodafoneVodafone

Airtel operates in the following countries:

es Net worth $8.3 billion (2011)[2] Religion Hinduism Spouse Nyna[1] Children 3[1]