Hyderabad, June, 2004: Bharti Tele-Ventures, India’s leading telecom conglomerate, is the “Asian MobileNews Mobile Operator of the year” in India and the subcontinent. The award is a part of the annual Asian MobileNews Awards 2004 and recognizes outstanding performance by companies in Asia, in the mobile service industry. The awards were announced in Singapore and follows the Frost & Sullivan, CEO of the year award to Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Group Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises, announced last month.

The winners for the Asian MobileNews awards are chosen on the basis of votes cast by readers, who select from a list of nominees selected by an official panel of judges. Voting can only be done on original voting coupons issued in Asian MobileNews magazine. The nominees are selected on the basis of their mobile technology innovation and business performance in the preceding fiscal year. Asian MobileNews is a leading publication on mobile telephony in Asia and is a part of the Charlton Media group based in Singapore.

According to Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Group Managing Director, Bharti “It is heartening to know that Bharti’s efforts in enabling faster and more affordable communications is being recognized not just in this country but across the world. On behalf of the team at Bharti, I take this opportunity to thank all the stakeholders including our valued customers, channel partners, service & equipment providers for their continued support and feedback.”

Bharti is a leading telecommunication service provider in the country and is one of the first few service companies in India with a turnover in excess of a billion dollars. The company has secured over $1 billion in foreign equity, has a market capitalisation, which is amongst the top ten companies in India and contributes nearly 10% of the Indian telecom services revenue.

About Bharti
Bharti Tele-Ventures is India’s leading private sector provider of telecommunications services with an aggregate of 8.02 million customers as of end of May ‘04, consisting of over 7.34 million mobile customers. The Company today offers mobile services in sixteen out of 23 circles in India. The Company also provides fixed - line services in 5 circles.

The company complements its mobile and fixed-line services with national and international long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The company provides reliable end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers by leveraging its nationwide fibre optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station.

About Asian MobileNews
Published by Charlton Media Group, Asian MobileNews is the leading publication for mobile telecommunications operators in Asia. With a controlled circulation that is restricted to telecommunications industry players, it is published monthly and covers all new handsets, applications, technology and people in mobile telecommunications in Asia. A business magazine for leaders in mobile carriers and operators and resellers of mobile handsets, its editorial brief is to analyze the trends, news and intelligence for leaders in the Asian mobile industry and to present it in a reader friendly format.