uses see airtel disambiguation . this article is about bharti airtel worldwide . for bharti airtel s telecommunication operations in india see airtel india . it has been suggested that wynk limited be merged into this article . discuss proposed since march 2016 . bharti airtel limited type public traded as bse 532454 nse bhartiartl bse sensex constituent industry telecommunications founded 7 july 1995 1 founder sunil bharti mittal headquarters bharti crescent 1 nelson mandela road new delhi india 1 area served india sri lanka bangladesh africa and the channel islands key people sunil bharti mittal chairman and md products fixed line and mobile telephony broadband and fixed line internet services digital television and iptv revenue 966.021 billion us 14 billion 2016 operating income 341 billion us 5.1 billion 2016 profit 54 billion us 800 million 2016 total assets 2 248 billion us 33 billion 2016 total equity 708 billion us 11 billion 2016 members 324.37 mn march 2015 number of employees 24 868 2016 2 parent bharti enterprises 68 % 3 4 subsidiaries airtel india airtel sri lanka airtel bangladesh airtel africa airtel vodafone website www.airtel.com bharti airtel limited is an indian global telecommunications services company based in new delhi india . it operates in 18 countries across south asia africa and the channel islands . airtel provides gsm 3g and 4g lte mobile services fixed line broadband and voice services depending upon the country of operation . it is the largest mobile network operator in india and the third largest in the world with 325 million subscribers . 5 6 airtel was named india s second most valuable brand in the first ever brandz ranking by millward brown and wpp plc. 7 airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy 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 . 8 airtel s equipment is provided and maintained by ericsson and nokia solutions and networks 9 whereas it support is provided by ibm . 10 the transmission towers are maintained by subsidiaries and joint venture companies of bharti including bharti infratel and indus towers in india . 11 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 which allowed airtel to provide low call rates of 1 1.5 us minute . 12 contents 1 history 2 corporate structure 3 worldwide presence 4 telemedia 5 digital television 6 enterprise 6.1 mobile data service 6.2 enterprise business solutions 6.3 android based tablet 7 domestic operations 8 international operations 8.1 africa 8.2 bangladesh 8.3 sri lanka 8.4 channel islands jersey and guernsey 9 subscriber base 10 one network 11 acquisitions and mergers 11.1 mtn group merger negotiations 11.2 zain 11.3 warid bangladesh 11.4 telecom seychelles 11.5 wireless business services private limited 11.6 augere wireless 12 sale to orange 13 joint ventures and agreements 13.1 airtel vodafone 13.2 airtel ericsson 14 rebranding 15 sponsorship 16 signature tune 17 net neutrality debate 18 green initiative 18.1 greentowers p7 program 18.2 energy conservation 19 controversies 19.1 user privacy 20 see also 21 references 22 external links history edit retail outlet in keylong lahaul in 2010 in 1984 sunil mittal started assembling push button phones in india 13 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 bharti was making fax machines cordless phones and other telecom gear . 14 he named his first push button phones as mitbrau . in 1992 he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network licences auctioned in india . 14 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 . 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 13 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 . 13 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 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 centre gurgaon airtel launched hello tunes a caller ring back tone service crbt in july 2004 becoming to the first operator in india to do so . the airtel theme song composed by a.r. rahman was the most popular tune on that year . 15 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 . 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 emphasise 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 . 16 however the talks fell apart as mtn group tried to reverse the negotiations by making bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company . 17 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 . 18 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 . 19 in 2009 airtel launched its first international mobile network in sri lanka . 20 in june 2010 bhartil acquired the african business of zain telecom for 10.7 billion making it the largest ever acquisition by an indian telecom firm . 21 in 2012 bharti tied up with wal mart the us retail giant to start a number of retail stores across india . 22 in 2014 bharti planned to acquire loop mobile for 7 billion us 100 million but the deal was called off later . 23 bharti airtel limited airtel the world s third largest mobile operator with operations in 20 countries across asia and africa today said that its treasury division has been adjudged as a highly commended winner of the top treasury team asia awards at the adam smith asia awards 2015 . 24 corporate structure edit airtel has two distinct customer business units cbu with focus on b2c business to customer and b2b business to business segments . airtel s b2c business unit deals with servicing the retail consumers homes and small offices providing mobile fixed line dth and m commerce services while the b2b unit deals with large corporate accounts . worldwide presence edit coverage map of bharti airtel across 20 countries airtel is the one of the largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and has a commercial presence in 20 countries and the channel islands baysquare technology developed a settlement and reconciliation tool srt to reconcile from various data streams . the system was developed to match the calls being captured by the network elements and the calls getting rated i.e. ensuring that operator is billing all calls its serves and also it is paying out to other operators the correct billing amounts . 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 . airtel operates in the following countries country site remarks bangladesh airtel bangladesh airtel bangladesh had about 8 million customers as on sep 2013 . 25 burkina faso airtel burkina faso airtel burkina faso is the dominant player with 1 433 000 customers representing 50 % market share . 26 chad airtel chad airtel chad is the no. 1 operator with 69 % market share . 26 democratic republic of the congo airtel drc airtel is the market leader with almost 5 million customers at the end of 2010 . citation needed gabon airtel gabon airtel gabon has 829 000 customers and its market share stood at 61 % . 27 ghana airtel ghana airtel ghana had about 1.76 million customers at the end of 2010 . 28 india airtel india airtel is the market leader with almost 193.4 million customers as on 30 september 2013 . 29 kenya airtel kenya airtel kenya is the second largest operator and has 4 million customers . 30 madagascar airtel madagascar airtel is the market leader in madagascar with 39 % market share and 2.5 million customers . 26 malawi airtel malawi airtel malawi is the market leader with a market share of 72 % . 26 niger airtel niger airtel niger is the market leader with a 68 % market share . 26 nigeria airtel nigeria republic of the congo airtel congo b airtel congo is the market leader with a 55 % market share . 26 rwanda airtel rwanda airtel launched services in rwanda on 30 march 2012 . 31 seychelles airtel seychelles airtel is the leading comprehensive telecommunications services providers with over 55 % market share of mobile market in seychelles . 32 sierra leone airtel sierra leone sri lanka airtel sri lanka airtel sri lanka commenced operations on 12 january 2009 . it had about 1.8 million mobile customers at the end of 2010 . 28 tanzania airtel tanzania airtel tanzania is the market leader with a 38 % market share . 26 uganda airtel uganda airtel uganda stands as the no. 2 operator with a market share of 38 % . 26 zambia airtel zambia airtel zambia is the market leader with 69 % market share . citation needed channel islands jersey guernsey airtel jersey and guernsey airtel operates in the channel islands under the brand name airtel vodafone through an agreement with vodafone . jersey and guernsey are british crown dependencies . they are not independent countries . therefore airtel s countries of operation is considered to be 20 . telemedia edit airtel broadband blocking tpb under the telemedia segment airtel provides broadband internet access through dsl internet