Bharti Airtel, the parent company of Airtel Bangladesh, became the third largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers, the company said in a statement. While struggling in Bangladesh to get a better position, the company moved up one position in the global ranking to achieve the third place.
According to World Cellular Information Service, the company is serving 303 million customers across 20 countries.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Airtel said, “This is a major landmark in the journey of Airtel and underlines the strength of our business model and our brand that is loved by customers across 20 countries”.
In India, Airtel owns the widest 3G footprint covering approximately 86.8 percent of the country's population and has the largest rural mobile customer base serving over 100 million mobile customers in rural markets, Mittal said.
In Africa, Airtel is the largest mobile operator in terms of geographical footprint. It offers 2G, 3G services and Airtel Money across all 17 countries in Africa. In Sri Lanka, it provides voice, data and enterprise solutions.
The company has been struggling in Bangladesh to have a strong position in market. Although, it has seen a rapid growth earlier of its journey, the company is facing huge challenge in acquiring new users.
