1995
Our telecom journey begins with the launch of cellular service in New Delhi
1996
Airtel introduces services in Himachal Pradesh
1997
British Telecom (BT) – a major UK-based telecom operator acquires 21.05% equity stake in Bharti Airtel
1998
Breaking the public sector monopoly, we become the first private sector company in India to introduce fixed line services in Indore
1999
We acquired majority stake in JT Mobiles (a leading cellular service operator in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) to emerge as the largest private sector operator and officially started operations in both the states, in the following year, under the brand aegis of Airtel
2000
Airtel formed a strategic partnership with Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) and the company later joined the Board with an investment of $400 million in Airtel – the single largest investment by an international investor in telecom sector at that time
2001
We introduced India’s first private submarine cable company ‘Network i2i’ in partnership with Singtel as a 51:49 joint venture company. The 3,200 km submarine optical fiber cable network was set-up at a cost of $250 million, linking Chennai (India) and Tuas (Singapore) with a high bandwidth capacity of 8.4 terabits per second
Airtel expanded its presence to Kolkata with a 100% stake in Spice Cell, the then leading operator in Kolkata
Our cellular services was launched in Chennai after acquiring 89.5% equity stake in SkyCell Communications
2002
We successfully closed India’s first 100% book building Initial Public Offer (IPO), raising ₹833.85 crore for 10% equity stake
We entered the markets of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh (west), Uttaranchal, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala
2003
Allowing customers access to Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), we introduced General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) over our network
2004
We entered into a path-breaking partnership with IBM to outsource hardware, software and IT services requirements
2004
To build and maintain our mobile network across 16 circles in India, we signed network management agreements with Ericsson and Nokia
Commercially launched Enhanced Data Rate for Global Evolution (EDGE) services in Delhi for our customers, to experience rich multimedia content
Airtel was the first private mobile service operator to introduce its services in the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir
2005
We became a pan-India mobile service operator with the launch of our services in Assam
2007
Formed an independent tower company, Bharti Infratel Limited, by hiving off passive infrastructure (telecom towers) assets
2008
Introduced the state-ofthe-art Direct To Home (DTH) service for home entertainment
2010
Rebranded ourselves with a completely new brand identity, presenting a unified face for our customers across the globe
2011
We introduced the first 3G service in India, in the city of Bangalore, with more than 1 lakh customers registering within 72 hours of its launch
2012
Launched the revolutionary 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) service in Kolkata with superfast mobile internet services
2014
The first operator to launch 3G WiFi dongle
Launched Wynk Music – carrier agnostic mobile application with a curated library of 1.8 Mn songs
2015
Bharti Airtel launch “Project Leap’ Airtel’s network transformation program
Airtel emerged as the 3rd largest mobile operator in the world with more than 303 million subscribers in Africa and India
4G services extended to 17 cities in India
Airtel applied for a Payments Bank license with Kotak to acquire 19.9% stake in Airtel M Commerce Services Limited
4G service was launched across India in 296 towns, enabling our customers to experience high speed wireless broadband and enjoy uninterrupted HD video streaming, superfast uploading and downloading of movies, music and images
Rolled out national mobile number portability service
Launched high speed 4G services commercially in 334 towns across India
2016
Became the first mobile operator in India to commercially deploy LTEAdvanced (4G+) technology on a live 4G network in Kerala
Successfully concluded the acquisition rights to use 2 x 5 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz Band allotted to Videocon Telecom in 6 circles
2017
Airtel Payments Bank became the first payments bank in the country to go LIVE as it rolled out services nationally
Acquired Telenor India (an enterprise of Telenor South Asia Investments Pte Limited)
Completed the acquisition of Tikona Digital Networks, making Tikona a wholly owned subsidiary of Airtel
Announced the deployment of Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), in partnership with Huawei Telecommunication India, as part of Airtel’s ongoing network transformation program
2018
Launched an Industry first exclusive rewards program: #airtelThanks
Entered into a definitive agreement with Tata Teleservices Ltd. and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd. for acquisition of their Consumer Mobile Businesses (CMB)
Launched One Airtel – firstof-its-kind digital quad-play platform in India, to simplify customer experience for homes that use multiple Airtel services
2019
Successfully closed USD 3.6 Bn Rights Issue
Launched Airtel Xstream, a converged digital entertainment application for mobile users, along with India first Android based set-top box and OTT smart stick
In an industry first initiative, Airtel launched voice over Wi-Fi service that leverages innovative technology to enhance indoor voice calling experiences
Launched 1Gbps ‘Airtel Xstream Fiber’ with unlimited ultra-fast broadband
Wynk Music became #1 music streaming app in India in terms of Daily Active Users based on App Annie Data
2020
Airtel became first operator to launch 4G in 26 villages located in tough terrains of upper Ladakh
Successfully closed $2bn QIP and $1bn FCCB, the largest dual tranche Equity and FCCB offering ever in Asia-Pacific, the largest QIP by a private sector issuer in India and the largest FCCB offering from an India issuer in the last 12 years
