iWorld
Chandigarh to host Mobiletek – 2005 in April
MUMBAI: Mobiletek – 2005, a technology event showcasing emerging mobile technologies, will take place at CII Convention Center, Chandigarh on 15 April and 16 April. The event is organised by telecom phone card manufacturer Masterline Print Media.
The event, specialising in the mobile industry, provides a unique platform where telecom operators and service, material & content providers will meet under one roof. Mobiletek – 2005 will showcase various cutting edge and upcoming technologies including General Packet Radio System (GPRS), Microsoft Windows Mobile and Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE).
‘Mobiletek – 2005’ also aims at being a technology showcase, where the burgeoning telecom business opportunities are realized, where the companies and resources will come together which will enable new mobile technologies, applications and services to forge ahead into the future and also as a meeting point for decision-makers on the lookout for innovative solutions for their organizations, helping forge relationship with high-end early adopters, manufactures, application developers, integrators, resellers and other partners, informs a company release.
iWorld
Airtel crosses 650 million customers to cement its place as world’s second largest telco
The Indian telecoms giant, now spanning 15 countries, is chasing the top spot with satellites, smartphones and mobile money
NEW DELHI: Numbers like these do not come around often. Bharti Airtel has crossed 650 million customers, making it the world’s second largest telecom operator by mobile customer base, according to GSMA Intelligence. Only one rival sits ahead of it. The gap, Airtel intends to close.
Gopal Vittal, executive vice chairman of Bharti Airtel, was characteristically measured. “Achieving the milestone of 650 million customers to be the second largest operator globally is a great responsibility for us to serve our customers better every day,” he said. “Every customer interaction is an opportunity to earn trust and deliver value.”
The scale of the operation is striking. In India, Airtel serves over 368 million mobile customers and was the first operator to launch 5G Plus services. It now reaches over 13 million homes with high-speed internet and a further 15 million households through its Digital TV offering. Its enterprise arm, Airtel Business, runs mission-critical infrastructure across cybersecurity, cloud, IoT and SD-WAN, underpinned by over 400,000 route kilometres of subsea fibre and a string of green data centres. The company has also announced a push into non-banking financial services, using its data insights to offer personalised credit products through the Airtel app.
Africa tells an equally ambitious story. Airtel Africa serves over 179 million customers across 14 countries, with Airtel Money, its mobile financial platform, counting over 52 million users. In a continent where traditional banking remains out of reach for millions, Airtel Money is not a product. It is infrastructure.
Beyond terrestrial networks, Airtel is reaching upward. Partnerships with Eutelsat OneWeb and SpaceX give it access to a constellation of low earth orbit satellites, pushing high-speed, low-latency broadband to remote maritime, aviation and rural areas that cables will never reach.
Airtel’s networks now cover over two billion people across 15 countries. The company that began as an Indian mobile operator has become something rather larger. At 650 million customers and climbing, it is not finished yet.
