Telecommunications service provider Bharti Airtel, with operations in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa said that it has become the third largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers.

As per the latest data published by WCIS, Airtel with over 303 million mobile subscribers across its operations, has moved up one position in the global rankings.

Airtel began operations in November 1995 in New Delhi (India) and in less than two decades it has emerged as one of the top brands in the emerging markets with an unmatched scale and diversity of operations.

The Company pioneered the low-cost business model based on outsourcing that has allowed it to expand its services rapidly and give customers affordable access to mobile telephony. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti 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.

Today, we seamlessly manage global scale operations in diverse geographies and deliver the same world-class services to each customers, this perhaps is one of our biggest achievements. I want to thank our employees and our business partners for supporting us through this exciting journey and with the mobile internet play about to happen in the developing world, things will only get brighter from here on.”

In Sri Lanka, Bharti Airtel offers a range of mobile services which includes voice, data and enterprise solutions on its state-of-the-art 2G and 3G HSPA+ network. Airtel’s 3G presence across over 70 percent of its network is amongst the highest 3G ratio available across the subcontinent.