HONOLULU -- Bharti Airtel Ltd.:

Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s leading integrated telecom conglomerate today announced the launch of the ‘India with Airtel’ – a strategic partnership program at the PTC ’08 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The program focuses on providing leading international carriers an opportunity to partner with Airtel for providing a variety of telecom services in India like managed data & Internet services, domestic connectivity, International Circuits, managed customized integrated solutions and satellite services etc. Under this initiative, Airtel is offering carriers with business interests in India, multiple partnership models ranging from simple interconnects to joint development of new products. Carriers can leverage Airtel’s leadership position in the Indian market to address their requirements and that of their customers in India, jointly with Airtel.

Announcing the launch of the program, David Nishball, President, Enterprise Services, Airtel said, “This program will help carrier partners utilize our extensive domestic and international network for their benefit. These partners can offer various services from Airtel’s comprehensive portfolio to accomplish their India business strategy. We also propose to work jointly with these carrier partners to develop a go-to-market strategy. This program highlights how Airtel seeks to develop the industry by working with other partners to achieve successful results in the Indian telecom market.”

The program aims to help carriers across all carrier segments through different partnership models. There are options for India connectivity aimed at carriers taking license in India and building their networks. Options are also available, for carriers with a presence in their home territory but having no network to India, to connect to the Airtel global network. Another option is aimed at carriers with international presence and partial networks to build networks jointly with Airtel. There is also an option for integrated players which need to expand their network to India to add Airtel’s services to their portfolio as White Label Services.

The ‘India with Airtel’ partnership program offers carriers a host of options of simple plug and play models to initiate or enhance their capabilities to India. Carriers also have options of utilizing either their existing network to India or for building complete new network and services to India using Airtel’s global capabilities. The program encompasses the complete partnership lifecycle, right from developing the products and services to joint sales and after sales support. Airtel will also provide support to these partners in India including marketing support through dedicated sales teams and marketing collaterals across all services. Carriers will be offered customized partnership models to meet their individual needs.

Airtel provides an integrated suite of local and global connectivity solutions across continents. With local network spanning over 75,000 route kilometres of fibre including intra-city fibre covering more than 500 cities, over 600 MPLS and SDH POPs, Airtel offers an unparalleled domestic reach in India. It has further extended its international footprint after the acquisition of i2i recently and has made investments in SMW4, Apollo, TAT 14, APCN2, C2C along with major shareholding in all new cable projects like Asia America Gateway and others across the globe.

Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Mumbai: BHARTIARTL)