Airtel now 3rd largest global mobile operator
Airtel, a leading telecommunications service provider with operations in 20 countries across south Asia and Africa, has become the third largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers, the World Cellular Information Ser v ice (WCIS) has disclosed.
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.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of 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.”
Airtel’s mobile networks cover over 1.85 billion people across its operations in 20 countries and carried over 1.23 trillion minutes of calls and over 333 petabytes of data in 2014.
In Africa, Airtel is the largest mobile operator on the continent in terms of geographical footprint. It offers mobile phone and Airtel Money services across 17 countries in Africa.
