Annual Report
2015-16

Achievements in
FY 2015-16

2015
May
  • Received Bilateral Financing Commitments of up to USD 2.5 Bn from China Development Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
June
  • Airtel becomes the third largest mobile operator in the world.
  • Signed an agreement to acquire 100% equity stake in Augere Wireless Broadband India.
July
  • Rolled out a national mobile number portability.
  • Announced the launch of first indigenously manufactured DTH set top boxes; in step with the Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.
  • In collaboration with the Government of Madhya Pradesh, launched an internet literacy programme - ‘e-Shakti’, to build internet awareness and access for women working with various government departments and for girl students of government-run schools and colleges.
August
  • Introduced new range of ‘Infinity Plans’ (industry first plan) and an industry first technology platform – Flexpage.
  • Launched ‘Wynk Movies’ – carrier agnostic mobile application offering customers thousands of movies and other video content.
  • Entered into strategic partnership with Uber in India.
September
  • Signed pan-African agreement with Liquid Telecom to provide fibre connectivity to towers.
  • Won ‘Golden Peacock Award for Sustainability’ for the year 2015.
October
  • Launched high speed 4G services commercially in 334 towns across India.
  • Concluded the sale of about 9,000 telecom towers in eight African countries. Total proceeds from all the concluded transactions is over USD 1.8 Bn.
November
  • Wynk Music crossed 12 Mn downloads.
  • Announced ‘Project Leap’ - largest capital expenditure of ` 600,000 Mn in the next three years towards a comprehensive network transformation.
2016
January
  • Entered into an exclusive discussion with Axiata Group to explore the possibility of combining the business operations of their subsidiaries in Bangladesh, namely, Robi Axiata.
  • Signed a definitive agreement with Orange to sell operations in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.
February
  • Became the first mobile operator in India to commercially deploy LTE-Advanced (4G+) technology on a live 4G network in Kerala. LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation technology combines TD LTE (2300 MHz) with FD LTE (1800 MHz) bandwidths to deliver mobile data speeds up to 135 Mbps.
  • Airtel Rwanda received the award of best 4G Mobile Network Operator for the year 2015 for exceptional performance in 4G LTE by Olleh Rwanda Networks (ORN).
March
  • Entered into a definitive agreement with Videocon Telecommunications Limited (VTL) to acquire, rights to use 2x5 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz Band in six circles at an aggregate consideration of ` 44,280 Mn.
  • Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited agreed to acquire 19.90% of the paid-up capital of Airtel Payments Bank Limited.
  • Entered into agreement for the sale of over 1,300 telecom towers in Tanzania to American Tower Corporation (ATC).