• customers to experience a new brand and enjoy superior quality of service, reliability, innovation and affordability wherever they live, work or travel
• will deliver innovative and affordable products and services across the continent
• investment in community development by supporting schools across Africa
Nairobi, Kenya – Bharti airtel – the world’s fifth largest telecom company – has its sights set on improving the African telecom infrastructure this year.
Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and Joint Managing Director, Bharti airtel said: "I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers and stakeholders an illustrious start to the New Year. We remain committed to offering affordable services, deepening our network coverage to include the rural population and enhancing the digital experience through 3G across the continent; ultimately offering a better brand experience for all our customers in Africa.”
Mr. Kohli added, “We would like to thank the governments for their overwhelming support. We want to be a partner in Africa’s growth and will work closely with the governments and regulators to enable the telecom networks touch all parts of society.”
A commitment to affordability and innovation
In a move that will accelerate the transformation of African mobile communications and positively impact the speed of economic development across the African continent, Bharti Airtel Limited and IBM announced the selection of IBM to manage the computing technology and services that will enhance Bharti Airtel’s mobile network.
As well as deploying and managing information technology (IT) infrastructure and applications, IBM will deploy advanced technologies created by IBM Research, including the Spoken Web - a voice-enabled Internet that allows users to access and share information simply by talking over the existing telephone network, which is particularly compelling for populations with little or no literacy, visual impairments, or lack access to computers.
In addition, IBM plans to deploy a powerful content management system to offer rich media content such as music and video over mobile devices, while simultaneously facilitating the growth of the application developer community in Africa.
Strategic partnerships with Ericsson, Huawei and NSN will exponentially improve the quality of the network across the African landscape and expand the footprint of the 2G and 3G services. In line with global trends, Africa is experiencing a surge in demand for access to mobile data applications. The modernization and optimization of the networks will give airtel an opportunity to offer exciting services in 2011.
Mr. Kohli reiterated: “The partnerships take us one step closer to our vision of making telephony available and affordable for everyone across Africa, even in the most remote areas which are at present disconnected from the world. We are also laying the foundation for the introduction of 3G HSPA wireless broadband as access to content is the right of every African citizen. Mobile broadband is a catalyst for economic growth and development. Many of our new customers will have an online experience for the first time in their lives.”
The selection of IBM, Tech Mahindra and Spanco as strategic partners in the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) sector will provide airtel’s customers world class support as they utilize the new and existing services. An additional benefit of the adoption of this BPO model will be the creation of more job opportunities in the countries that airtel operates in within Africa. The global partners will also build local specialist skills, capabilities and resources.
These initiatives, in addition to other products – such as airtel Money – demonstrate airtel’s ongoing commitment to providing useful services to the community.
A focus on the community
Recognizing that a good education is a child’s strongest barrier for poverty, airtel strives to reach and uplift the underprivileged by investing in education.
The Adopted Schools education initiative launched in 2010, in conjunction with local governments, provides refurbishments, uniforms, scholastic materials, furniture, teaching aides and broadband connections to schools in need. To date, 9,000 underprivileged children across 14 schools have benefited from the initiative.
In 2011, airtel will continue to improve and enhance the program by increasing the number of adopted schools across 16 countries on the continent.
About airtel in Africa
airtel is the new brand name for the 16 Zain operations across Africa which were acquired by airtel International in June 2010. airtel is driven by the vision of providing affordable and innovative mobile services to all. airtel has African operations in: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. airtel International is a Bharti airtel company. For more information, please visit www.airtel.com
About Bharti airtel Limited
Bharti airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. The company offers mobile voice & data services, fixed line, high speed broadband, IPTV, DTH, turnkey telecom solutions for enterprises and national & international long distance services to carriers. Bharti airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world by BusinessWeek. Bharti airtel had over 202 million customers across its operations at the end of November 2010. To know more visit www.airtel.in