Bharti Airtel was incorporated in 1995 as Bharti Tele-Ventures to provide telecommunication services in India. Over the years, it acquired several cellular service providers and rapidly expanded its mobile and fixed-line operations across India through partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions. By 2003, Bharti Tele-Ventures had launched services under the Airtel brand across most of India and become one of the largest telecom companies in the country.

1. Company History - Bharti Airtel
Bharti Tele-Ventures was incorporated on July 7, 1995 as a company with
limited liability under the Companies Act, for promoting telecommunications
services. Bharti Tele-Ventures received certificate for commencement of
business on January 18, 1996. The Company was initially formed as a wholly-
owned subsidiary of Bharti Telecom Limited. The chronology of events since
Bharti Tele-Ventures was incorporated in 1995 is as follows:
Calendar year & Events
1995
- Bharti Cellular launched cellular services'AirTel'in Delhi
1996
- STET International Netherlands NV, or STET, a company promoted by
Telecom Italia, Italy acquired a 20% equity interest in Bharti Tele-Ventures
- Bharti Telenet launched cellular services in Himachal Pradesh
1997
- British Telecom acquired a 21.05% equity interest in Bharti Cellular
- Bharti Telenet obtained a license for providing fixed-line services in Madhya
Pradesh circle
- Bharti Telecom and British Telecom formed a 51% : 49% joint venture, Bharti
BT, for providing VSAT services
1998
- Bharti Telecom and British Telecom formed a 51% : 49% joint venture, Bharti
BT Internet for providing Internet services
- First Indian private fixed-line services launched in Indore in the Madhya
Pradesh circle on June 4, 1998 by Bharti Telenet thereby ending fixed-line
services monopoly of DoT (now BSNL)

2. 1999
- Warburg Pincus (through its investment company Brentwood Investment
Holdings Limited) acquired a 19.05% equity interest in Bharti Tele-Ventures
- Bharti Tele-Ventures (by acquiring a 63.45% equity interest in SC Cellular
Holdings) acquired an effective 32.36% equity interest in Bharti Mobile
(formerly JT Mobiles), the cellular services provider in Karnataka and Andhra
Pradesh circles
- New York Life Insurance Fund, or NYLIF, acquired a 3% equity interest in
Bharti Cellular
2000
- Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired an effective equity interest of 40.5% in Bharti
Mobinet (formerly Skycell Communications), the cellular services provider in
Chennai
- Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired a 30.2% equity interest of Telecom Italia in
Bharti Telenet and 18.8% from Bharti Telecom thereby making Bharti Telenet a
100% subsidiary of Bharti Tele-Ventures
- SingTel (through its investment company Pastel Limited) acquired STET's
15.3% equity interest in Bharti Tele-Ventures
- Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired an additional effective 41.64% equity interest
in Bharti Mobile (by acquiring the remaining 36.55% equity interest in SC
Cellular) resulting in Bharti Tele-Ventures holding an effective 74% equity
interest in Bharti Mobile.
2001
- Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired NYLIF's 3% equity interest in Bharti Cellular
- Bharti Telesonic entered into a joint venture, Bharti Aquanet, with SingTel for
establishing a submarine cable landing station at Chennai
- Bharti Tele-Ventures issued additional equity for approximately US$ 481.30
million to SingTel, Warburg Pincus, AIF group, IFC, NYLIF, and Seejay
Cellular and Bharti Telecom

3. - Bharti Cellular acquired a 100% equity interest in Bharti Mobitel (formerly
Spice Cell ), the cellular services provider in Kolkata
- Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired 85% and 15% in Bharti Telespatial from Bharti
Telecom and Intel, respectively
- Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired a 44% equity interest in Bharti Cellular from
British Telecom, thereby making Bharti Cellular its 100% subsidiary
- Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired an additional 49% equity interest in Bharti
Mobinet from Millicom International and BellSouth International, thereby
owning 89.5% equity interest in Bharti Mobinet, which was further increased to
95.3% following an issuance of additional equity shares by way of rights issue
- Punjab license restored to Bharti Mobile by the DoT and migration to NTP -
1999 accepted
- Bharti Cellular entered into license agreements to provide cellular services in
eight new circles following the fourth operator cellular license bidding process
- Bharti Telenet entered into license agreements to provide fixed-line services in
the Haryana, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka circles
- Bharti Telesonic entered into a license agreement with the DoT to provide
national long distance services across India
- Bharti Aquanet, Bharti Telesonic and Bharti Cellular entered into license
agreements with the DoT to provide ISP services in India
- Bharti Telesonic launched national long distance services under the brand
name of "IndiaOne"
- Bharti Telenet launched fixed line services in Haryana under the brand name
of "TouchTel".
2002
- Comes out with issue of 18.53 crore equity shares through book building route
with a floor price of Rs 45 per share, received bid for 18.55 crore shares.
Through the issue, it becomes the first company in India to come out with 100%
book building issue
-Issue price fixed at Rs 45 per share, floor price fixed by the company. Raises

4. Rs 834 crore.
-Shares listed on BSE, NSE and DSE, opens at 11% premium to its issue price
of Rs 45
-Enters into a 5-year agreement with Escotel and ETL of the Escorts group to
contract leased line connectivity for its cellular operations
-Mr. Ravi Akhoury ceases to be Director of Bharti Tele
-DoT grants ILD Telephony License to Bharti Telesonic, subsidiary of the
company
-Signs MoU with Telia AB to buy out their 26% stake in Bharti Mobile
-Ties up with SSC (Secondary School Certification) Board, Hyderabad, where
Bharti will announce SSC results to its customers on their mobile phones
-ICICI Bank ties up with Bharti for pre-paid mobile cards via ATMs
-Bharti forays into Mumbai with offers
-Alpine International Ltd. and ELM International Ltd. acquire shares of Bharti
Tele-Ventures
-Sunil Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director of the company, bags
Businessman of the year award by Business India
2003
-Airtel breaks interconnectivity with Tata Teleservices in Andhra Pradesh
Circle
-Company accorded its approval for amalgamation of its subsidiary companies
viz: Bharti Telenet Ltd, Bharti Telesonic Ltd, Bharti Broadband Networks Ltd
and Bharti Comtel Ltd through scheme of Amalgamation. The merged entity
would be renamed as "Bharti Infotel Ltd"
-Air Tel launches Local direct dialling facility in Chennai circle
-Mobilises $315 m long term foreign currency borrowings for expansion of
cellular operations

5. -Bharti Cellular unveils CareTouch service
-Bharti Group's cellular brand Airtel has unveiled free multimedia messaging
services (MMS) for its customers. The company has also rolled out pan-India
GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) for its corporate subscribers
-Launches its `IndiaOne MeetXpress' audio-conferencing service
-Punjab, Haryana get free incoming calls from Airtel
-AirTel provides SMS facilities to hearing impaired in Chennai
-Goa, Maharashtra gets 'voice portal' services by Bharti Cellular
-Launches free additional connection to its new subscribers in New Delhi
-Mr Sin Hang Boon and Mr Wong Hung Khim have resigned from the Board of
Directors of Bharti Tele Ventures Ltd with effect from February 27, 2003.
-Airtel provides SMS cricket updates
-Bharti Mobinet Ltd, the Bharti group company that provides the AirTel mobile
service in Chennai, today launched its GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)
network and an MMS (multi-media messaging) on the GPRS platform
-AirTel unveils new ring tones for karnataka cellular market
-AirTel Subscribers exceed 3 million mark
-AirTel unveils RAD system
-Mr P M Sinha resigns from the Board of Directors of the Company with effect
from March 31, 2003.
-Bharti TeleVentures announces the completion of merger with Bharti Mobitel
-Bharti Mobitel Ltd. merged with Bharti Cellular Ltd.
-AirTel reintroduces 'Mobile 2 Mobile' offer for Karnataka customers
-AirTel, Touchtel jointly offer freeTouchtel land line for post-paid Airtel
connection

6. -AirTel rolls out voice mail service for pre-paid customers
-AirTel unveils new scheme for pre-paid customers giving away free talk time
worth Rs 10 crore
-Airtel surpasses 4 lakh subscriber base in Karnataka
-Bharti announces new tariff plan AirTel 012
-Offers 0-1-2, a new cellular package for the customers, which means zero
charges on incoming calls, Re 1 on mobile-to-mobile outgoing calls, Rs 2 on
mobile-to-mobile STD calls
-Rolls out Airtel messenger service
-AirTel offers bundled handset, connection package for Rs 5715
-Airtel slashes SMS rates to 60 paise; excludes Delhi and Mumbai
-Bharti cellular, wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Tele-Ventures, increases its
stake to 100% in Bharti Mobile
-Iinks distribution pact with Hathway Cable. With this alliance, Bharti is said to
be the first telecom firm to step into television distribution services
-Six cell operators move over from Bharti to VSNL
-Airtel augments cellular coverage in TN by including Arcot & Walajapet in its
network
-Airtel ties up with Coke in Chennai to sell its Magic prepaid cards
-AirTel embarks on network expansion in Hyderabad
-Airtel unveils IndiaOne Long Distance Calling Card
-AirTel introduces unified tariff package in TN, Chennai
-Airtel becomes front runner in Karnataka's mobile services market
-Bharti Tele launches 'Always on' service to its subscribers
-SBI, AirTel announce EMI offer at Rs 299

7. -Bharti and MTV join hands to launch new SIM card
-AirTel unveils new post-paid scheme at zero rental
-AirTel launches `Happy Plan' in AP
-Airtel emerges as the highest selling pre-paid card
-Airtel join hands with Alcatel & Videocon to launch new scheme
-AirTel service provider touches 5 lakh customers in Punjab
-Airtel offers 5 new services for its customers in Mumbai
-Bharti launches first dual band network in Delhi
-Gets 14th place among top 25 Cos in India
-Bharti Mobile crosses 4 lakh mobile subscribers in AP
-Airtel holds top position in terms of dealer penetration
-Prof. V S Raju has been inducted on the Board of Directors of the Company.
-Touchtel launches SMS service in fixed line phones in Karnal, Panipat
-AitTel unveils special offers in Kerala
-AirTel launches InnoWest for the western region
-Bharti Tele-Ventures enters into an agreement with Telesystem (Mauritius)
Pvt. Ltd
-Airtel slashes out going sms price to 30ps
- AirTel on December 16, 2003 announced the launch of expense tracker
service, which provides customers the option of tracking their day-to-day
expenses on a daily or monthly basis. To avail of this service, the customer
should register himself by sending EXP REG Your mail ID{gt} to 3020. This
service will allow a user to track expenses, while on the move by sending an
SMS. Each SMS sent to 3020 would cost Rs 3.

8. -AirTel introduces MTV Club Card in Chennai
2004
-Bharti unveils new card for Mecca piligrims
-AirTel enrolls 50,000 customers in its mobile service in 60 days
-Launches WAP enabled portal Service in Kerala
- Bharti Cellular's AirTel has extended its mobile connectivity to Karaikkal,
Nagur, Mannargudi and Kovilpalayam in Tamil Nadu circle.
-Airtel customer base touches new high of 5 lakh mark in Andhra Pradesh
- Mobile service provider AirTel is launching its first ever MMS (Multi Media
service) downloads in Tamil. The launch of this service has been timed to
coincide with Pongal.
-AirTel tie up with MAA TV
-Airtel launches Rs 50 pre-paids recharge
-AirTel launched a family pack for its post-paid customers in Chennai on
January 29. According to a press release, the family pack may have a maximum
of 10 members spread across the country. The combined basic plan fixed
charges/rental of all family members in the pack will have to be equal to Rs 450
but less than Rs 1000 for the family 450 pack and above Rs 1000 for the family
1000 pack. The offerings under family pack 450 include 15 free mobile to
mobile STD minutes within the family, 50 free local calling minutes to each
family member, calls within the family in same circle at 50 paise per minute, 25
free local SMS and one subscription alert service free for 3 months.
-Bharti Tele-Ventures enters into a three year service agreement with Ericsson
-Bharti Tele-Ventures (BTVL) has signed and received unified access service
licence to provide GSM services in five circles including Uttar Pradesh (East),
West Bengal & Andaman Nicobar, Orissa, Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir. The
licence has been granted to Bharti Cellular Ltd (BCL), the cellular arm and
subsidiary of BTVL.
-Airtel announces the signing of the first-ever bilateral roaming agreement
between an Indian mobile service provider and its counterpart in Pakistan. This

9. facility will be available to pre-paid as well as post-paid customers. AirTel's
roaming agreement is with Mobilink, the only GSM cellular service provider in
Pakistan
-Acquires switching systems from Tekelec that will give a technological edge to
the company
-Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd signed an information technology outsourcing deal
with infotech major IBM, estimated to be in the range of $700-750 million for a
ten-year period.
-Jayant Khosla, new chief executive officer, Mumbai
-Signs MoU to join the South East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 4
(SEA-ME-WE-4) consortium along with 15 other global telecom operators.
-Bharti Tele-Ventures has struck a deal with Shyam Telecom to buy out the
latter's 67.5 per cent stake in cellular services company Hexacom for Rs 430
crore.
-Bharti Tele garners $100 m via FCCBs
- Samsung India Electronics Limited has tied up with cellular operator Bharti
for bundling its mobile handsets with a connection.
-The Bharti group finalised a Rs 500-crore deal to share its national long-
distance (STD) network with VSNL in a first-of-its-kind accord between two
top telecom service providers in a bid to optimise capacities in the NLD
segment.
- Internet gateway and services provider, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL)
has signed a Right to Use (RoU) agreement to deploy mobile telephony major,
Bharti Tele-Ventures' existing National Long Distance (NLD) backbone.
-Airtel offers talktime transfer service
-Airtel has announced money-back guarantee offer in case of call drop or poor
network experience for its subscribers
-Bharti launches 2-in-1 card
-- Airtel launched two-way international roaming and GPRS for prepaid
customers in the Maharshtra and Goa circles

10. -India's leading cellular company Bharti Tele-Ventures has bagged the "Asian
MobileNews operator of the year" award in India and the subcontinent
-Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd has awarded a $15 million equipment contract to
Swedish telecoms company Ericsson
-Bharti Televentures announced formation of a new "strategic business unit" to
offer various telecom and IT services through a single contact
-Bharti Televentures unveiled a mobile portal featuring sports, entertainment
and news among others
-Airtel ties up with Micro Tech to set up 'Mcops' vehicle security system
-Bharti Tele-Venture on July 19 launched ring back tone service which is a
personalized mobile music service where the caller hears songs and other sound
clips instead of the traditional switchboard "ring-ring" tone
-Airtel, a private telecom services provider, has commissioned its first 24x7
customer service centre in Andhra Pradesh
-Airtel unveils Rs 199 pre paid card
-AirTel join hands with NMIMS to offer executive MBA programme
-AirTel introduces new scheme for hearing impaired in Maharashtra & Goa
-AirTel inks pact with JP Mobile
- Rolls out Enhanced Data Rate for Global Evolution (EDGE) network in Pune
on September 9, 2004, Ties up with Nokia for sale of Nokia 6230, an EDGE-
enabled handset.
-AirTel unveils first virtual calling cards in India
-BTVL rolls out EDGE services in Bangalore
-Airtel rolls out Full Talktime Advantage card
-Airtel rolls out wi-fi services in Mumbai
-BTVL launches new 'Airtel Broadband Friendly Offer'

11. -Airtel launches GPRS services for pre-paid customers
-Airtel partners with ITPO to set up Wi-Fi network in Delhi
-Airtel launches EDGE services and a new pre-paid plan for Chennai
-Airtel introduces LAS in Karnataka
2005
-Airtel launches video services for its GPRS customers on February 22, 2005
-Airtel unveils new TV ad featuring Sachin, Sharukh
-Bharti Tele-Ventures launches telecom network in Andaman & Nicobar
-BTVL unveil fixed line, broadband services
-Bharti inks $125-m deal with Nokia for rural network expansion
-Bharti Tele Ventures Ltd has announced that Airtel, ICICI Bank & VISA have
joined hands to launch mChq - a revolutionary new service - a credit card on the
mobile phone
-Bharti Tele Ventures - Airtel introduces BlackBerry Connect in India
-Bharti Tele Ventures announces agreement with Vodafone
-Airtel unveils 'free flight' offer
-Airtel unveils starter pack
-Bharti Tele-Ventures launches under sea cable system
2006
-Airtel unveils Re 1 STD plans
-Airtel launches NetXpert.
-Airtel launches Post2Pre recharging service on April 04,2006.

12. -Airtel sets up customer centre
-Mobile service provider Airtel today announced the launch of `Save My Phone
Contact' service for its pre-paid and post-paid customers in Delhi
-Bharti Tele Ventures bags 'Wireless Service Provider of the Year' &
'Competitive Service Provider of the Year' awards
-Sunil Mittal bags CEO of the Year award
-Cellebrum join hands with Airtel
-Airtel Mega unveiled in Coimbatore
-Airtel joins hand with Microsoft
-Bharti Airtel Ltd has informed that Microsoft and the Company announced a
strategic partnership that will offer a range of software and services for small
and medium businesses (SMBs) in India.
-Bharti Airtel Ltd on Nov 8, announced a first-of-its-kind alliance with the
Adani Group for establishing an end-to-end modern telecommunication network
infrastructure for the latter's multi-sector special economic zone (SEZ), located
near Mundra Port in Kutch district of Gujarat.
2007
-Bharti Airtel, telecom major, has come out with a slew of initiatives including
buying out SingTel's 50 per cent stake in joint venture under sea cable company
Network i2i for $110 million.
-Bharti Airtel on Feb 11, has been awarded QCI-DL Shah National Award on
Economics of Quality.
-Bharti Airtel Ltd has announced the following changes in the operational
leadership structure and roles in the Company effective April 01, 2007.
-Bharti Airtel Ltd on April 01, 2007, has announced the reduction in
International Long Distance Tariffs (ISD) for all its mobile customers in India.
-Airtel signs agreement with HTC for touch screen mobile.
2008

13. - Nokia Siemens Networks on Jan 3 declared that it has been awarded a multi
million euro contract from Bharti Airtel Ltd for deployment of a single
interactive voice response (IVR) platform across 23 circles. The three-year
turnkey contract comprises designing, planning, systems integration and
optimisation services to raise overall customer experience. The new IVR
solution will enable Airtel to deliver services such as voice SMS, televoting,
call management services, caller ring back tone and voice portal on a faster
time-to-market basis and, therefore, reduce OPEX costs.
- Bharti Airtel Ltd on February 13, 2008 has announced that it has achieved the
60 million customer mark. This landmark has catapulted Bharti Airtel into the
club of top mobile operators in the world in terms of subscriber base. The 60
million customer base covers mobile as well as fixed line and broadband
customers.
- Bharti Airtel tied up with US-based Apple Inc to bring the popular GSM-
based iPhone in the country.
- Bharti Airtel Ltd has forged a technology alliance with Infosys Technologies
Ltd to launch its Direct-to-Home (DTH) television services. Infosys, through its
digital convergence platform, will offer a suite of products including devices,
application servers and interactive applications for Airtel's DTH services.
2009
- Bharti Airtel HAS signed a five-year managed services deal valued at $500
million with Alcatel Lucent for its fixed-line and broadband operations.
- Bharti Airtel launched the 'Airtel Advantage' initiative. The initiative is aimed
at offering the added advantage to Airtel customers to be in touch with each
other at an affordable rate of 50 paise per minute, be it a national long distance
call (STD) or a local call.
- In order to create products and services for the small, medium and large
enterprises, Bharti Airtel and Cisco announced a strategic business alliance. The
alliance would combine the strengths of Airtel's network service and Cisco'
Internet Protocol (IP) technologies.
- Bharti Airtel - Airtel and mChek announce milestone of One Million users;
introduce a broad range of new mCommerce services.
2010

14. - Bharti Airtel submitted its bid for 3G spectrum, the auction for which starts
from April 9.
- Bharti Airtel has partnered with US-based software maker VMware Inc. It has
done this in order to focus on the cloud-based managed computer services
market.
- Bharti Airtel, India's No.1 cellular carrier has won broadband spectrum in four
circles. Earlier, Bharti has said that it had tied up the entire financing
requirement of $8.3 bn for the planned buy, through a series of banks.
- Gearing up for the roll out its 3G services soon, Bharti Airtel on Monday said
it has chosen Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei
Technologies as network partners to launch the third generation mobile
services. All the three partners will plan, design, deploy and maintain a state-of-
the-art 3G HSPA (high speed packet access) network in 13 telecom circles of
the total 22 for which Bharti Airtel has bagged the licences for over Rs.12,000
crore.