Bharti Airtel crosses 50 million customers

Bharti Airtel, India's leading telecommunication services provider, announced that it had crossed the 50 million-customer mark. Airtel now becomes the fastest private telecom company in the world to achieve this milestone

With this, Bharti Airtel has achieved the distinction of becoming the fastest private telecom company in world to achieve this landmark in a single country - within 143 months of start of operations.

The 50 million-customer base covers mobile as well as broadband and telephone customers.

Airtel, who recently received approval to launch 2G and 3G mobile services in Sri Lanka, plans to launch local operations early next year.

With just 30% mobile penetration and witnessing a steady growth of approx. 2 million mobile users per annum, Bharti Airtel sees Sri Lanka as a strategic market in its overseas expansion journey and has made an estimated investment of US$ 200 Million in the Sri Lankan market.

Commenting on this major global landmark, Joint Managing Director, Akhil Gupta, Bharti Airtel said, "We are delighted to have achieved this major landmark, which puts Bharti Airtel amongst the top telecom companies in the world.

It underlines the strength of our unique business model and our vision to provide affordable services like lifetime prepaid to customers across the length and breadth of the country.

This milestone highlights the emergence of India as one of the top telecom markets in the world and we are proud to have been at the forefront of this growth.

Going forward, we believe this growth momentum will remain intact and we are gearing towards the 100 million customers mark."

Bharti Airtel crossed the 10 million-customer mark in November 2004. In July last year, it crossed the 25 million-customer mark.

The company added the next 25 million customers in just 14 months.