Bharti Airtel Limited

Set up by Sunil Bharti Mittal in the year 1995, Airtel has come up a long way to earn and maintain the top spot in India's mobile phone industry. Covering all 23 telecom circles, it has emerged as India's top private telecom operator, and in fact the strength of their telecom
business has allowed Bharti to foray into sectors like Insurance (tie up with AXA) and Retail (where it tied up with none other than Wal-Mart).

Some great and highly successful innovations by Airtel (later copied by rivals) like Hello Tunes and Lifetime Recharge Schemes have been huge revenue makers.

Reliance Communications

A part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), the company recently set a new record for addition of new mobile connections in a single month. After a failed bid to acquire Hutch, Anil Ambani (Chairman, ADAG), is all set to get back on his job to pursue his wishes to launch GSM services along with his current CDMA services, which are operational in 21 telecom circles. Having already acquired GSM licenses to operate in two major telecom circles (Delhi & Mumbai), Anil Ambani is surely making lots of right moves. A vital one is his entry into the entertainment industry with the acquisition of Adlabs. Indeed the technology is making telecom & entertainment industries converge. And value-added services are growing thick and fast. So, the acquisition not only puts him into the entertainment world but also allows him to link the two businesses and provide movie-related content for mobiles.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)

This public sector giant has its own vast network coverage as the biggest strength. A company that likes to play on the call costs field rather than touching sensitive issues like network strength and connectivity, maybe because its really got something to do with the low service perception of the company's services.

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* Contributed by: -
Shekhar Arya,
MBA 1st Year,
Department of Management Studies,
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.