Bharti Airtel becomes second-largest telco globally with 650 mn users

Bharti Airtel strengthens its global standing with 650 million users across India and Africa, while expanding into digital services, financial products and satellite communications

Bharti Airtel, the country’s second-largest carrier, has crossed 650 million customers across global markets to reinforce its No. 2 position in terms of customers worldwide.

 

The Sunil Mittal-promoted carrier said Thursday that according to GSMA Intelligence, Bharti Airtel is ranked second globally by mobile customer base, with operations spread across India and Africa.

 

Commenting on this milestone, Bharti Airtel's Executive Vice Chairman Gopal Vittal said: “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. This is why we invest in state-of-the-art technologies to not only provide connectivity but to also deliver a safe network.”

 

 

“Our purpose is clear: As we deepen and expand our presence, we will strive to raise the bar on innovation, reliability, and experience so that every customer interaction is an opportunity to earn trust and deliver value connection.”

 

In India, the carrier is the first to launch 5G Plus services, which now includes Xstream AirFiber (FWA) and an integrated IPTV service. It has over 368 million mobile customers.  The company also provides 13 million homes high-speed internet services and offers Digital TV services to more than 15 million customers. To expand its digital services, Airtel has recently announced its foray into the non-banking financial company (NBFC) space, leveraging its data insights to offer personalised credit and financial products through the Airtel app. 

 

At its African operations, it has a base of over 179 million customers across 14 countries. 

 

Airtel Africa’s core is Airtel Money, a transformative mobile financial platform with over 52 million customers, which drives financial inclusion by providing banking and instant payments to millions of previously unbanked users across the continent.

 

The carrier has diversified into satellite communications with OneWeb-Eutelsat, which offers its services across global markets, and is expected to begin operations in India soon.