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Airtel - Positioning (And Repositioning)
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BACKGROUND NOTE
Sunil Bharti Mittal (S.B. Mittal) laid the foundations of the New Delhi based Bharti Group in the 1970s with a small bicycle-parts business. In 1985, he entered the telecom business by establishing
Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) that manufactured telephonic equipment. In the same year, BTL entered into technical
collaboration with
Siemens AG(Germany) for manufacturing electronic push button telephones.
BTL also signed an agreement with Takacom Corporation (Japan) for manufacturing telephone answering machines. Over the years, BTL tied up with leading telephone equipment manufacturers from countries such as South Korea and US.
The group entered the telecommunication (telecom) industry during the early-1990s (Refer Exhibit I and II for a note on the Indian cellular telephony industry).
Bharti Tele-Ventures, a part of Bharti group, offered various telecom services such as fixed line, cellular, V-SAT and Internet services. The operations of Bharti Tele-Ventures were run by four wholly owned subsidiaries. These were Bharti Cellular Ltd. (Cellular), Bharti Telenet Ltd. (Access), Bharti Telesonic Ltd. (Long Distance) and Bharti Broadband Networks Ltd. (Broadband Solutions). The flagship services of the Bharti group included Airtel (cellular), Mantra (Internet Services) and Beetel (telephone instruments).
In 1992, Bharti entered the cellular market by launching services in Delhi. Over the next few years, it also entered other
telecom circles. In the early 2000s, Bharti invested heavily in the acquisitions and alliances to expand its cellular market in India. As a part of this, Bharti acquired JT Mobile (Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka),
SkyCell(Chennai) and Spice Cell (Kolkata). It even announced plans to acquire Usha Martin, the leading cellular service in Kolkata. It also entered into collaborative agreements with BPL to gain seamless access in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Chennai, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Bharti launched Airtel as a post paid cellular service in Delhi in November 1995. Over the next few years, the company redefined the way cellular services were being marketed in the country. This was made possible due to its innovative marketing strategies, continuous technological upgradations, new value added service offerings and efficient
customer service. Initially confined only to the Delhi circle, Airtel's services were soon extended to many other places.
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Continued....
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telecom circles : The Indian telecom market was divided into 21 ‘telecom circles'(circles), which in turn, was divided into three categories ‘A,'‘B,'and ‘C'based on their size, density (population) and importance. Category ‘A'comprised Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu; ‘B'comprised Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal; ‘C'comprised Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam and North East. Cellular licenses were separately issued for in the metros of Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata.
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