Bharti Airtel hits 50 million subscriber milestone

Bharti Airtel becomes the first Indian telecom company to reach the 50 million subscription mark by September and become the tenth operator in the world to achieve this milestone. Though the 50 million subscribers span across mobile, broadband and fixed telephone services, more than 48 millions are belonged to the Wireless segment.

Bharti Airtel which was launched 143 months before, has doubled its subscribers in the last 14 months. The company aims to reach 100 million mark by 2010. “Our next 50 million will largely come from rural India as our plan is to reach 5,200 census towns and over five lakh villages, covering 96 per cent of the Indian population,” said Bharti Airtel president and CEO, Manoj Kohli, at a news conference this week.