10 Cror Airtel Subscriber

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Bharti Subscriber Base Hits 100 Million …

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel has emerged a dominant global telecom company, on Friday announcing that it had notched up 100 million subscribers in India. With this, Bharti is now the world’s third-largest, single-country mobile operator and sixth-largest integrated telecom operator.

Terming it a “big achievement”, a clearly elated chairman & group CEO Sunil Mittal said the next 100 million would be garnered within three years on the back of an almost doubling of teledensity from the present 37% to 75% in that period. Bharti Airtel currently has a 25% marketshare and 30% of telecom revenues in the country are generated through its network.

China Mobile and China Unicom are the world’s largest and second-largest in-country mobile operators with 414 million and 170 million users, respectively. In terms of integrated telecom operators, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, AT&T and Verizon rank ahead of Bharti.

Bharti started operations in the Delhi circle in 1995 and over the last couple of years has sought a strategic acquisition in emerging markets to replicate its Indian model of ‘affordability and reach’. Last year, it came close to acquiring South African telecom major MTN, but was foiled after last-minute disagreements.

Besides telephony, Bharti is looking to enter the telecom tower business in emerging markets to aggressively accelerate its growth, group deputy CEO Akhil Gupta told FE in an exclusive interview. The company, which has hived off its tower business, owns Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, in which Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular also have stakes.

According to Gupta, “Emerging markets need more and more towers and this is one business where despite the low price, the returns are impressive. We will be looking at replicating our success in the telecom tower business across the globe”.

In the tower segment, Bharti may either go solo, starting the business from the scratch, or tie up with local partners. “If any worthwhile deal comes, we will examine it,” Gupta said. Typically, a tower costs Rs 25-30 lakh. Bharti Infratel is planning to increase its towers in India by another 25,000 in the current year and has earmarked an investment of over $1 billion this year.

Mittal, meanwhile, said that despite the recent relaxation giving his company more headroom for FDI, the company doesn’t require capital right now. Bharti started generating cash flows since the October-December quarter of the last financial year and in the January-March quarter it paid a dividend for...