Looking back at the year

Looking back at the year

Received a formal approval from
Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the

acquisition of Telenor India

(an enterprise of Telenor South Asia Investments Pte Limited)
Won Aon Best Employer India 2017 for achieving high levels of employer brand, employee engagement and well established human resource practices
Airtel Nigeria won the 2017 Most Outstanding Customer-centric Telecoms Brand Award at the National Marketing Stakeholders Summit and Brands and Advertising Excellence Awards
Won the TM Forum’s Excellence Award 2017 in the ‘Smart Service Provider - Business of the Year’ category for accelerating digital transformation in India
Completed the acquisition of Tikona Digital Networks making Tikona a wholly owned subsidiary of Airtel
Announced strategic partnership with SK Telecom (Korea’s largest telecommunications company) to leverage their expertise in improving network experience, machine learning, big data and better customer experience
Airtel launched ‘Project Next’, aiming to transform customer experience across its services and touch points. This included first set of digital innovations with introduction of Next Gen Airtel Store, New version of MyAirtel App and Airtel’s postpaid promise with ‘data rollover feature’.
Announced the deployment of Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) in partnership with Huawei Telecommunication India as a part of Airtel’s ongoing network transformation program
One of the three companies from India to be covered in the Forbes list of

‘The World’s Most InnovativeCompanies 2017’

Airtel Payments Bank launched UPI enabled digital payments allowing secure digital payments to online/offline merchants and instant money transfers to any bank account in India through smartphones
Entered into a definitive agreement for merger with Tata Teleservices Ltd and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd for their Consumer Mobile Businesses (CMB)
Airtel Rwanda completed the formalities of acquisition for Millicom International Cellular to combine their telecommunication operations in Ghana
Announced the sale of 20% equity stake in Bharti Telemedia Limited (its DTH arm) to an affiliate of Warbug Pincus subject to regulatory and statutory approvals
Bharti Airtel Limited via its wholly owned subsidiary, Nettle Infrastructure Investments Limited, divested 150 Mn shares of subsidiary Bharti Infratel Limited through secondary share sale in the stock market for a consideration of over

₹ 58,950 crore.

Launched ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ initiative in partnership with Karbonn Mobiles to introduce affordable 4G Smartphone in the Indian market
Signed an agreement with the Department of Telecom (DoT) and the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for introducing provision for mobile services in identified uncovered villages and national highways in the North Eastern States of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.
Tigo acquisition in Rwanda approved by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA)
Board of Directors of Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV, (a wholly owned subsidiary) initiate non-binding exploratory discussion with various banks/intermediaries to explore the possibility/feasibility of listing of its shares on an internationally recognized stock exchange
Crossed the 300 Mn mobile subscribers mark in India during the quarter

Fastest mobile network in India

Acknowledged as the fastest mobile network in India by the global leader in internet speed tests - Ookla for the third time in a row
Ranked as the ‘Best Company to Work For’ within the telecom sector and amongst the top 10 across sectors in India by Business Today – PeopleStrong Survey, 2017