The Hindu Business Line : Bharti to bring all telecom services under Airtel brand

(From left) Mr Hemant Sachdev, Director (Marketing), Bharti Tele-Ventures; Mr Rajan B. Mittal, Joint Managing Director; Mr Badri Agarwal, President; and Mr Manoj Kohli, President (Mobility), at a press conference in the Capital on Wednesday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Sept. 15

BHARTI Tele-Ventures said that it was unifying all its telecom services under the flagship brand Airtel. The move is aimed at projecting the company as an integrated telecom services player and offering Bharti customers a single window interface for all communication needs.

Until now, Bharti offered fixed line services under the brand Touchtel, long distance services under India One brand, cellular services under Airtel and broadband services under Bharti Broadband. All of these services will now be under the Airtel umbrella. The combined brand will have 9.04 million customers.

For Airtel customers, the move would result in single billing for all telecom services. This would also increase the distribution network for Bharti's non-mobile services as it would now be a ride on Airtel cellular's 600 outlets across the country. They would also get the convenience on query redressal, access to drop boxes and bill payment facilities.

For the company, the new strategy would result in cost efficiencies and economies of scale. It would also enable Bharti to offer bundled packages for Airtel mobile and fixed line subscribers. The company has already extended the Airtel tariffs available so far only for mobile users, to its fixed line subscribers as well. This means calls from an Airtel fixed line phone to an Airtel mobile and vice versa would also now cost 60 paise a minute. The company has also waived off the initial security deposit for Airtel fixed line users who want an Airtel mobile connection. This is the first time an integrated telecom operators in the country is unifying all its services under a single brand.

The company currently offers mobile services in 18 circles and the number would go up to 23 soon with plans to extend the footprint to Bihar, Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir and parts of the North-East. Bharti has earmarked an investment of Rs 600 crore for rolling out services in these new circles. Bharti also has fixed line services in 5 states.

"Bharti's unified brand strategy is pursuant to the coming in of unified licence regime and company's high growth strategy. A unified brand approach will ring in the benefits of common identity, scale and size for Bharti. This will make us a single window provider of a suite of world-class telecom services. The integrated brand will also bring in the benefits of a larger distribution network and unique bundling offers," said Mr Rajan Mittal, Joint Managing Director, Bharti Tele-Ventures.

More Stories on : Strategy | Telecommunications | Brands

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Bharti to bring all telecom services under Airtel brand

LifeStyle Weekends show featuring Aasma

Special invitee to AAAI panel

Ray+Keshavan fashions brand map

BIS to develop India-specific norms for auto steel

Zain Raj is Euro RSCG Chicago's marketing chief

Colvyn Harris to be next CEO of JWT

Sonata launches new range of watches