About Airtel
Bharti Airtel is India’s top telecom service provider, headquartered in Gurgaon. The company, driven by Sunil Bharti Mittal, has operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. In 2012, it has become fourth-largest telecom service provider worldwide in terms of subscriber base. In India, the telco operates in all 22 telecom circles with offerings that include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH and enterprise services including national and international long distance services.
Company has African operations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Bharti Airtel also offers mobile wallet service Airtel Money that allows users to make payments for utility bills, goods and services in addition to money transfer across networks.
In January 2017, the telco also launched Payments Bank operations across 29 Indian states. The entire banking process at Airtel Payments Bank can be carried out digitally through an app available on both iOS and Android platforms and consumers can also use USSD and IVR for transactions. The company support Aadhaar-based e-KYC and subscribers’ mobile numbers act as their bank account numbers.
In 2017, Bharti Airtel has entered into definitive agreement with Telenor South Asia Investments to acquire Telenor India Communications in order to get access to Telenor-operating seven circles including Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, UP East and UP West.
About Vodafone
Vodafone India, which is the country’s second-largest service provider, operates as a fully-owned subsidiary of UK-based Vodafone group. The company, under brand Vodafone started operations in 2007 after Vodafone Plc acquired a majority stake in Hutchinson Essar.
Mumbai-based Vodafone operates in all the 22 telecom service areas with more than 200 million subscribers across 2G, 3G and 4G technologies. The telco, in order to strengthen its play in home broadband segment, had acquired Internet service provider YOU Broadband in April 2016.
Vodafone Business Services offers total telecommunications solutions to enterprises and government. The telco had launched mobile phone-based money transfer service M-Pesa in partnership with ICICI bank in November 2011.
Vodafone's popular mobile financial service M-Pesa can be recharged via a bank account, credit card or debit card. M-Pesa began Kenya operations a decade ago under the umbrella of Safaricom, the Kenyan arm of the UK-based Vodafone. Regulated by the Kenyan central bank, the platform gives non-banking users access to financial services through partnerships with local bankers.
In March 2017, Vodafone and Idea Cellular approved their business merger with an aim to create world’s second largest and India’s largest telecom service provider. Vodafone has mobile service operations across 26 countries, and has partnerships with mobile networks in 57 nations.
Through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) wing Vodafone Foundation, the telco works in the various areas such as education, health and wireless access. It leverages mobile technology for m-women, m-education, m-health and m-agriculture initiatives, and work together with charities, development agencies and the community to drive social change on in India. The telco also focusses on disaster relief and runs the World of Difference - a unique employee engagement program.
About Idea
Idea Cellular, owned and managed by Aditya Birla group, is India’s third-largest telecom service provider GSM operator offering 2G, 3G and 4G services. Mumbai-based Idea offers NLD and ILD operations, and has an ISP license. With a revenue market share of 19%, the telco serves close to 200 million subscribers across all 22 telecom circles.
Idea’s nationwide network covers more than 400,000 towns and villages across the country. It also offers business solutions to enterprises for voice, connectivity and location-based services.
In March 2017, Vodafone and Idea Cellular boards have approved their merger, excluding the Idea’s 42% stake in Indus Towers. The aim of this mega merger was to create world’s second largest and India’s largest telecom service provider.
The merger of Idea and Vodafone is founded on the shared commitment to deliver substantial stakeholder value. The Revenue Market Share (RMS) for Idea stands at 18.7% for the quarter ended December 2016, and as of February, 2017, the subscriber base of your company stands at 196.1 million, with subscriber market share of 19.4%.
Company’s GSM-based 2G services are available across 22 telecom service areas of India, covering more than 1 billion Indians in nearly 400,000 towns and villages. Idea Cellular owns 3G spectrum in 15 licensed service areas and 4G spectrum in 20 service areas out of 22 service areas.
In 2014, Idea Cellular had become sixth largest mobile operator in terms of number of subscribers in single country operations, according to GSMA Intelligence report.
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