Airtel Is Now the Third Largest Mobile Operator in the World

Early this week, Airtel announced that it was the third largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers. As per the latest data published by WCIS, Airtel with over 303 million mobile subscribers across its operations, has moved up one position in the global rankings.

Airtel began operations in November 1995 in New Delhi (India) and in less than two decades it has emerged as one of the top brands in the emerging markets with an unmatched scale and diversity of operations. The Company pioneered the low-cost business model based on outsourcing that has allowed it to expand its services rapidly and give customers affordable access to mobile telephony.

Top Five Global Mobile Operators by Customers

 (Source: World Cellular Information Service (WCIS) – As per their latest published global rankings)

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel, said, “This is a major landmark in the journey of Airtel and underlines the strength of our business model and our brand that is loved by customers across 20 countries.  Today, we seamlessly manage global scale operations in diverse geographies and deliver the same world-class services to each customers, this perhaps is one of our biggest achievements. I want to thank our employees and our business partners for supporting us through this exciting journey and with the mobile internet play about to happen in the developing world, things will only get brighter from here on.”

In Africa, Bharti Airtel is the largest mobile operator in the Continent in terms of geographical footprint.  It offers 2G, 3G services and Airtel Money across all 17 countries in Africa. Airtel Money is one of the largest and fastest growing m-commerce services on the continent and with data adoption leading the growth on the continent, Airtel is well positioned to leverage the opportunities.