Bharati Airtel has 40 million customers

Bangalore, May 23 (UNI) By crossing 40 million customers, Bharathi Airtel has become the country's first mobile service provider and the 10th in the world to join an exclusive list of global telecom operators, a company release said here today.

The company's overall wireless market share catapulted to over 23.2 per cent as of April 2007 from 20.4 per cent as reported in 2006.

Company President (Mobile Services) Sanjay Kapoor said " the 40 million customer milestone is indeed a remarkable achievement not only for us but also for the country as it clearly underscores the coming of age of Indian companies in the international telecom arena." The company proposes to aggressively roll out more than 30,000 towers by 2008 to increase its coverage to 70 per cent.

Currently, Airtel is present in nearly 4,700 census towns and over 200,000 non-census towns and villages, covering 59 per cent of the population.

UNI