Debt Policy

Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel is the market leader in the GSM telecom sector in India with a market share of about 29.33% with 141,251,288 subscribers as per the COAI report August 2010. Bharti Airtel is a national player with its presence in all the metro cities and all three A, B, and C circles and have won a 3G License.

With the large number of players in telecom industry in India the cellular category has become a me-too offering. It is very difficult to have a sustainable competitive advantage. Price no longer qualify as an effective differentiator therefore, the image of the service provider counts a great deal. In the telecom sector in India, it is the network efficiency and the quality of the service that become important. Brand awareness is spread through the campaigns and brand preference is through the brand stature. It makes more sense for the telecom operators to reinforce their brands through advertisements as it is very difficult to differentiate themselves from others. Even if some company comes up with something new it can easily be copied.

Operational Strategies

• Bharti Airtel do not manage their IT infrastructure, they have outsourced it to IBM in a 10 year deal that began in year 2004. Bharti Airtel did this to save on costs, a strategy that helped it on its way to become the countries top mobile operator.

• Bharti has constantly been trying to expand their market not only in India but abroad as well. Bharti previously offered services in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and have recently bought the operations of Zain telecom in 16 African countries, has outsourced its IT network in Africa to technology major IBM for a period of 10 years as they did in India.

• Bharti have outsourced their network and telecom equipments to Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Network which help them in cost savings and impart the benefits to its customers.

• The shared infrastructure model has helped Airtel grow its presence in the domestic market and reach more...