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Airtel

Airtel – An Indian-based Company Operating Second Largest Mobile Network Across The Globe.

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Airtel is a telecommunication company that every Indian has heard of as well as people abroad. It is not only the second-largest telecom operator in India but also across the world. Sunil Bharti Mittal is the founder of the company. The company’s headquarters is based in New Delhi, India and it operates in 18 countries. The main services of Airtel are mobile services (2G, 4G LTE, 4G+), voice services, and fixed-line broadband. Airtel’s business strategy especially of outsourcing has made it successful in a few years. The IT support for the company is provided by Amdocs and it also made the partnership with Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers for the transmission network. Let’s have a better look at the history and operations of the company.

The Founding Story Of Airtel

Before the push-button phones were made in India, they were imported from Taiwan to replace the rotary phones. In 1984, Sunil Mittal started assembling the components of these push-button phones in India instead of importing them. To manufacture these phones, Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) tied up with Siemens AG (a German company) and eventually started production. Sunil Mittal bid for one of the four mobile phone network licenses that were auctioned in India and finally his plan was approved in 1994 and he launched the telecom services in Delhi.

Sunil Mittal was the first Indian entrepreneur who spotted the potential of telecom services in the Indian market and beyond and grasped it quickly. Within a few years of launch, Bharti crossed the 2 million subscriber mark and brought STD/ISD under the brand name “India one.” From 1999, Bharti Enterprises started acquiring other businesses spread across India. The company also launched an Airtel theme song which gained much popularity in India.

In 2008, Airtel was considering acquiring the MTN group which is a South African telecommunication company. The company is spread across 21 countries and it has several subsidiaries which would have been very advantageous for Airtel. But, the deal was not fixed as MTN tried to make Airtel one of its subsidiaries. The discussions went on for a long time but after one year, the idea was dismissed. In 2010, Airtel acquired Zain mobile networks in 15 African countries and this acquisition became the second-largest Indian overseas acquisition after Tata Steel. Gradually, Airtel expanded to several other countries and climbed the ladder to becoming one of the largest telecom networks in the world.

Airtel
Image source: indiatvnews.com

Expansion, Mergers, And Acquisitions

After the MTN Group acquisition plans fell off, Airtel succeeded in acquiring Zain which made Airtel the fifth-largest wireless carrier in the world in terms of subscribers. In 2010, the company acquired a 70.9 percent stake in Warid Telecom and the remaining was sold to Bharti Airtel Holdings in Singapore. The same year, the company planned to acquire Telecom Seychelles which operated in 19 countries. After two years, the company acquired a 49 percent stake in Wireless Business Services Private Limited and it gave the company a stronger 4G presence. The other companies that Airtel acquired are Augere Wireless which gave Airtel 4G presence in Central India (partially), Indian assets of Telenor, Tikona Digital Networks Pvt Ltd, Tigo Rwanda followed by Tata Teleservices and Tata Docomo.

As mentioned earlier, the presence of Airtel outside India is also very strong. In Bangladesh, it operates as Robi and in Sri Lanka as Airtel Sri Lanka. Airtel Africa includes 15 African countries under the network. Some of the countries are Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, etc. Airtel also has network operations in the Channel Islands which include Jersey and Guernsey.

About The Founder

Sunil Bharti Mittal is the founder and chairperson of Bharti Enterprises. He is an Indian billionaire, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He graduated from Punjab University in 1976 and started his first business by borrowing the capital from his father. After a few years, he started a trading company with his brothers. The trading business included importing various equipment from other countries and one of them was push-button phones from Taiwan. But, in 1981 the government of India suddenly banned the import of specific items which led him to assemble the push-button phone in India. This is how he took the first step towards building the emperor of Bharti Airtel. He is the recipient of Padma Bhushan.

Telus Communications

Telus Communications Inc. – The Largest Telecom and Internet Network in Canada

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Telus Communications Inc. is a Canada-based telecommunications company founded in 1990 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The company is the second-largest telecommunication company in Canada and offers its services on an international level as well. The company is a leading telecom company in Canada, making billions of revenues every year. As of 2020, Telus earned worth C$15.34 billion in revenues.

Telus Communications is among the top 100 best companies for employees, and as of 2019, over 65,000 people are working for it globally. Public Mobile, Alarmforce Canada, and Koodo Mobile are some of its major subsidiaries, providing services in the field of mobility, TV, internet/fiber, smart home security, healthcare, etc. Earlier, the company headquarters was in Alberta, which now has been moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The Founding of Telus Communications

The government of Alberta founded Telus as Telus Corp in 1990. The company was founded to encourage the privatization of the government-owned Alberta Government Telephones (AGT). This service was the most used telephone service in Alberta, except in Edmonton. Telus Communications is among the top 100 best companies for employees, and as of 2019, over 65,000 people are working for it globally. was a holding company, and to expand its operations into Edmonton, Telus acquired Edmonton Telephones Corporation (EdTel) in 1995. The same year, the company established the consumer internet service, and the next year, it launched Canada’s first Internet Yellow page service, i.e., Alberta.com. By 1996, AGT and EdTel had become a part of Telus.

The year 1997, Telus received approval for running multimedia service trials in Edmonton and Calgary from the CRTC. In 1999, Telus had a merger with BC Tel resulting in another big expansion for Telus, making it the second-largest telephone service in Canada. The same year, Telus Corp was renamed Telus Communications.

Telus Communications
Image Source: en.wikipedia.org

Telus, in 2005, merged its mobility department, Telus Mobility, with Telus Communications, resulting in the integration of the wireline and wireless segments of the company.  In 2009, the company launched a 3G+ wireless network, becoming the largest 3G+ network in Canada. Telus Communications won the most outstanding philanthropic corporation with a global award in 2010.

Telus Health launched an electronic service (first of its kind in Canada) for people to track their health in 2010. The next year, Telus launched the 4G+ wireless network in Canada, offering up to 42 Mbps downloading speed. Telus also became the first company to offer the Facebook app on its TV service in 2012. The same year, it launched the 4G LTE wireless network in 14 metropolitan cities in Canada.

Telus Communications Acquisitions

In June 2000, Telus acquired the market-leading bill integration firm CAG-TAMS. It also acquired the shares of GTE in Québec Téléphone (one of the oldest telecom companies in Quebec) in August 2000 and later renamed it to Telus Québec on April 2, 2001. On 25 October 2000, Telus acquired Clearnet to launch a wireless service in Canada. The next year Telus went on to acquire more companies, including Northwest Digital (NWD) Systems Inc., Columbus Group., PSINet’s Canadian operations and facilities, Daedalian Solutions Inc., Arqana Technologies Inc., and QuebecTel.

In the further years, Telus made some other acquisitions, including  ADCOM, Inc. (2004), Assurent Secure Technologies (2006), Emergis (2008), Black’s Photography (2009), Public Mobile (2013), etc.

The CEO: Darren Entwistle

Darren Entwistle is the CEO and the President of Telus Communications. He is a native of Montreal, Quebec, and completed his high school education at a local public school. Darren has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics (Honours) from Concordia University and an MBA (Finance) from the McGill University Desautels Faculty of Management. He also has got a diploma in Network Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Darren joined Telus in 2000, and before that, he had been with companies like George Weston Ltd., the Business Council of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, McGill University Board of Governors, and Bell Cablemedia Plc. Bell Cablemedia Plc is a UK-based company, where Darren served as an executive. Being with Telus for the past 20 years has made Darren the longest-serving CEO amongst all the telecommunication companies worldwide.

Reliance Plans to Launch Jio GigaFiber Next Few Weeks

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Reliance Jio, the biggest telecom company in India, had released the beta of its Jio GigaFiber last year, and since then, there have been many talks about the same. The Jio GigaFiber claims it will replace the old fashioned cables with all fibre cables, enhancing the speed for the broadband and TV connections. Reportedly, the company is planning to end the beta and officially launch the GigaFibre in the coming weeks.

Jio GigaFiber
Image Source: mysmartprice.com

Since the company had made the testing open for the public, too, many of the common people were able to enjoy the unlimited internet after paying a sum of Rs. 4500. This way, there have been numerous leaks on the details about the upcoming Jio GigaFiber.

The new Jio GigaFiber is faster and offers three different services altogether, i.e., landline, broadband, and a TV connection. With the new network connection, Reliance intends to provide its users with a connected ecosystem for their homes through a single package, and that too, at a cheaper price.

Though there are various network providers that use optical fibre for the connection, they mix these connections with the conventional cables. With Jio GigaFiber, the whole network will rely on fibre optics, leading to up to 100Mbps network speed with no or negligible loss in the connection. The people who were using the beta of the service have confirmed a similar speed on the network. The TV connection and the landline will also rely on the internet, such that JIO TV will stream the TV channels in HD, and people will be able to make free calls through the landline. Even if we believe the rumours, the Jio TV will stream 600 TV channels for Rs. 600.

Also, unlike the other network providers, GigaFiber includes the dual-band Wi-Fi routers. Currently, the company is offering the GigaFiber beta connection for a security deposit of Rs 4500. The other plan includes a single-band router rendering speed of 50Mbps, which will cost the users a sum of Rs 2500.

GigaFiber can be a big game changer for Reliance as it may empower other home devices as well, and this way, people will not have the need for different service providers for separate home internet services.

Amazon Wants to Enter the Telecom Industry; Plans to Buy Boost from Sprint

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amazon
Image source: http://time.com

Amazon is the biggest tech company, and it has spread its arms in almost everything. And now, the company is planning to expand into the telecom industry, too. According to a report by Reuters, Amazon is planning to acquire the prepaid cellphone wireless service Boost Mobile from its parent company Sprint.

The deal with Sprint not only will make Amazon fourth largest telecom services in the US but also may provide it with the access to the T-Mobile’s wireless network for a long period of time, as both Sprint and T-Mobile are under the process of a merger. The deal between T-mobile and Sprint will be a $26 billion merger if Sprint will be able to convince antitrust regulators for the merger.

But according to a recent report from Bloomberg, the regularity authority does not want that the number of wireless carriers be less than four, and the merger is actually, leading to that. So the two companies are working towards bringing an entirely new carrier, such that they might be giving away some of their spectrum to the new company and finalise the merger.

Boost is a subsidiary of Sprint, but is out of the merger contract, as Sprint has already decided to sell the company. So there are no chances that after the deal, T-Mobile can own it. In fact, the company that will own Boost will have access to the Sprint’s wireless network, but not T-Mobile’s. But according to the report from Reuters, acquiring Boost will provide Amazon with access to both the company’s combined network for a span of six years.

Since the news has been making rounds, there is a questing hitting everyone’s mind, “Why Amazon would want to enter the telecom business?” It is quite simple. The company has been expanding into almost every field. It is the biggest eCommerce platform and has got its cloud computing arm. The company has got its retail stores, streaming service, and now it is also off to start its own delivery service. So why not expand into telecom?

Kenny A. Troutt : A Billionaire Who Once was Dirt Poor

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A major Republican donor and the owner of the elite thoroughbred horse farm in Versailles, Kenny Trout is one of the richest persons in the world. The life of the American billionaire was never this easy. As a kid, he went through the financial struggle and worked hard to get at the position where he stands right now. In school, when his teacher questioned him that what he wanted to become in future, he did not know what career he would choose, but he surely knew that he wanted to become rich.

Early Life

Troutt was born in 1948 in Mount Vernon, Illinois, United States. His father worked as a bartender. He was the eldest of his three siblings. Troutt did his schooling from the Mt. Vernon Township High School, and later, graduated from the Southern Illinois University, in 1971. Belonging to a poor family, he always intended to overcome his family’s financial conditions and become rich. Due to the shortage of money, he started working at a very young age, to support his family and earn extra bucks. He even sold insurance to subsidise his studies while he was in college.

Kenny Troutt
Image source: dmagazine.com

Career

After completing his graduation, with continues hard work, he co-founded Excel, a long distance phone service, along with his business partner Steve Smith, in 1988. Smith’s interest in the network marketing business, helped the two to start the company, as he had found much more scope in the same. Just in nine years, the company had earned revenue in billion dollars. Excel became the fastest growing company in the U.S., even faster than Microsoft. In 1996, it went public in the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ECI, becoming the youngest company ever to join the NYSE.

In the month of June, the very next year, Excel acquired the Telco Communications Group, followed by a merger with Teleglobe, in November 1998. The merger between the two companies brought lots of fortune to the two co-founders of Excel. Troutt and Smith became billionaires overnight.

Troutt retired as CEO on September 20, 1999, and was replaced by Christina Gold. Currently, Troutt serves as the chairman of Mt. Vernon Investments.

Personal Life

Troutt is married to Lisa E. Copeland and has three children with her. The family lives in their 13000 square foot grand estate in Dallas Texas. At present, he owns a 2,400-acre thoroughbred horse breeding and racing farm in Versailles, Kentucky, named WinStar Farm. In 2014, his net worth was estimated to be approx. US$1.5 billion.

Huawei & Other Chinese Companies Banned from Australia’s 5G network

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Huawei
Image Source: xiaomitoday.com

The national security is a critical issue and the Australian government has given this reason to ban the world’s third largest smartphone company Huawei from its 5G network project. The news of banning Huawei started hitting the headlines in the month of June this year, and finally, on the last Thursday, it was officially imposed on Huawei.

Noticeably, as a result of the friction between the US and China, U.S. had also banned Huawei in its lucrative market over national security concern. Now this time, Australian intelligence agencies have also raised the same matter by saying that Beijing can force the Chinese companies to share sensitive data with them.

According to the reports, Australia’s acting Home Affairs Minister Scott Morrison said that the Government’s priority would “always be the safety and security of Australians”. Another government official stated, “Huawei owns political committees and they have to serve the Chinese intelligence agencies, under the Communist law if requested”.

Huawei Australia has denied all the connection with the political parties and has given an assurance that all the shares of Huawei are owned by its employees and the Chinese Government has nothing to do with its functioning. It also came on to twitter saying, ”This is an extremely disappointing result for consumers. Huawei is a world leader in 5G. Has safely & securely delivered wireless technology in Aust for close to 15 yrs”.

The ban on Huawei is only for Australian 5G network. It is already supplying equipment for the 4g network in Australia and will continue to do so. Along with Huawei, some other Chinese companies are also banned from the Australian 5G network, including ZTE.