Sunil Mittal

Peek in to the Past
Established in 1976, Bharti has been a pioneering force in the telecom sector with interests in mobile communications, domestic and international long distance services, fixed-line services and broadband services.

During the quarter ended Sept 30, 2003, Bharti Tele-Ventures, one of Mittal’s companies, became the first private telecom operator to cross the five-million-customer mark. AirTel, India’s largest cellular service provider with a presence across 16 states in the country, had more than doubled its mobile customer base from 2.29 million in September 2002 to almost 4.86 million at Oct 31, 2003. Bharti Telenet, India’s first fixed-line telephone service provider, is also the country’s largest fixed-line service provider in the private sector. And, with operations in Seychelles, Bharti is the first Indian company to provide comprehensive telecom services outside the country.