Airtel launches innovative campaign #ExpresswithHellotune

Encourages customers to share their moods and feelings by setting their favourite songs as ring back tones

Airtel Hello Tunes is FREE for all Airtel customers through Wynk Music app  

Mumbai, July 24, 2020: India's leading music streaming platform Wynk Music from Airtel has launched an innovative campaign #ExpresswithHellotune, to enable customers to  share their current moods and feeling with friends and loved ones through music, with a song of their  choice.

With most of India confined to their homes to practice social distancing, #ExpressWithHellotune aims at giving a platform to millions of Airtel customers to use music as a means to express how they feel to their friends and family by playing them a song when they call. 

#ExpresswithHellotune calls on all Airtel customers to set a song as their Hello Tune. Customers can choose from over 6 million songs on the Wynk Music app and set them as their Hellotune for FREE. Customers can also set/change their hellotunes unlimited times at no extra cost. 

Wynk Music’s extensive library offers popular music across various genres and 15+ languages, including English, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Oriya, Assamese and Rajasthani. 

Airtel Hello Tunes is available for FREE to all Airtel Thanks customers. And as a special gesture, Airtel has made Hello Tunes available to all non Airtel Thanks customers also for a period of 14 days to enable them be part of #ExpresswithHellotune.   

So, simply download the latest version of Wynk Music app (available for both iOS and Android), select your favourite song and click on the Hello Tunes icon to get started.

Airtel appoints Ganesh Lakshminarayanan as CEO-Enterprise Business

Mumbai, July 23, 2020: Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest integrated telco, today announced the appointment of Ganesh Lakshminarayanan as CEO-Enterprise Business.

In his new role, Ganesh will be responsible for further strengthening Airtel’s market leadership in the B2B segment and accelerate growth as enterprises undergo digital transformation to become future ready. He will report to Ajay Chitkara, Director – Airtel Business.

Ganesh brings with him rich experience in the IT and technology sector. Prior to joining Airtel, he was COO for Capillary Technologies. He was instrumental in starting Dell’s operations in India twenty years ago. Over the years, Ganesh led various functions at Dell – Global Consumer and SME Services, E-Commerce business for Americas and Sales Ops for APAC. In his last role at Dell, he was the President and MD of Dell India. He was also an advisor to start-ups like Practo, Belong and Porter and served on the executive councils of NASSCOM and FICCI.

Ganesh takes over from Ashish Arora will be now be CEO – Global Business and look at expanding Airtel’s global networks, including submarine cable systems, to serve international and domestic customers. 

Commenting on the appointment, Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel has always been a destination for top talent and I am delighted to welcome Ganesh to the Airtel Business team. Digital transformation of India has thrown up massive growth opportunities and Airtel is well positioned to leverage these. I am confident that Ganesh’s rich experience will add immense value to our growth plans. I also thank Ashish for his contribution and wish him and Ganesh the very best in their new roles.”

Airtel is India’s largest player the B2B connectivity space and serves over 2500 large and one million plus SMEs and startups with its integrated product portfolio that includes data centres, cloud, security and collaboration. 

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed home broadband, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 423 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2020. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

Made in India, For India: Airtel Thanks app launches regional language support

Airtel Prepaid customers can now access Airtel Thanks app in Hindi, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Malayalam and Punjabi

The feature will massively simplify the in-app experience for customers and help them unlock the full potential of Airtel’s exciting digital services   

Mumbai, July 09, 2020: As part of its mission to simplify the customer journey through innovative digital interventions, Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) today announced the launch of vernacular support on Airtel Thanks app.

Airtel Prepaid mobile customers can now access Airtel Thanks app in multiple Indian languages - Hindi, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Malayalam and Punjabi. The feature is LIVE on Android and will be available on iOS shortly.

Support for several other Indian regional languages, including Kannadda, Assamese and Odia will be introduced in the coming weeks.       

With increasing smartphone penetration, particularly in smaller towns and villages, customers are looking for vernacular online experience. This new feature on Airtel Thanks app will drive more adoption as well as make the user experience simpler and highly interactive for Airtel customers by removing language barriers. 

Says Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Airtel: “At Airtel, we are obsessed with solving customer problems and making their experience better through digital technologies. As India transforms into a smartphone nation, close to 35% of Airtel Thanks app users now come from Tier 2/3 towns and rural markets. With deep vernacular support, Airtel Thanks app becomes even more relevant and accessible for these customers and enables them to unlock the full potential of Airtel’s exciting digital services.”

Airtel Thanks app is the digital gateway to all Airtel services. It comes with a customised interface – Silver, Gold, Platinum – based on customer ARPU. The app allows Airtel smartphone customers to access Digital Self Care - make recharges, bill payments, checking real time data usage/balance details. Customers can also log service related issues through the app in a matter of few clicks. The app also offers access to digital payments and financial services along with preview of Airtel’s digital entertainment library.

Airtel Thanks app has been fully designed and built by the in-house engineering team of Airtel.

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed home broadband, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 423 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2020. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

Airtel steps up the Experience for its Platinum customers

Promises Faster 4G speeds to Platinum customers through Network Preference

·   Platinum customers also get preferential care with dedicated customer care and retail store executives

·   Range of exclusive Airtel Thanks benefits add to a highly differentiated experience

Mumbai, July 6, 2020: If you are an Airtel Platinum mobile customer then you are set to enjoy faster 4G data speeds on your smartphone and connected devices.

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest integrated telco, today announced the launch of ‘Priority 4G Network’ for its Platinum mobile customers.

Airtel has deployed advanced technologies that give its Platinum mobile customers preference on the network. As a result all Platinum customers will experience faster 4G speeds.

As part of Airtel Thanks program, all postpaid mobile customers on Rs 499 and above plans are designated as Platinum and enjoy a range of exclusive benefits, including a customised Platinum UI on Airtel Thanks app.  

Airtel has been consistently rated as offering the "Best Video Experience" by global experts and launch of ‘Priority 4G Network’ will further enhance the digital experience for Platinum customers.

In addition, Airtel Platinum customers get red carpet customer care with preferential service at call centres and retail stores. All Airtel call centres and retail stores have dedicated staff to attend to Platinum customers on priority and cut down on waiting time.

Shashwat Sharma, CMO – Bharti Airtel said: “It has been our endeavour to offer a differentiated service experience to our Platinum mobile customers as part of the Airtel Thanks program. And that’s where we will deliver that ‘extra’ service experience to them, including faster speeds by giving them preference on our 4G network, while continuing to serve each of our 280 million customers with the same passion.”

To enjoy the ‘Priority 4G Network’ experience, existing Airtel and non-Airtel customers can upgrade to Airtel postpaid plans starting at Rs 499. As part of Platinum care, Airtel will home deliver the ‘Priority 4G SIM’ to homes of customers. For more details visit www.airtel.in or download the Airtel Thanks app.

Watch Airtel’s latest campaign video on the Platinum experience:

https://youtu.be/ugV-cXdA_eM

Airtel augments high speed network capacity across Kolkata and West Bengal to step up customer experience

Kolkata, 22.06.2020: Bharti Airtel has augmented high speed network capacity by rolling out 1,500+ new 4G sites and small cells across Kolkata and West Bengal to step up customer experience.

“This will condense the network in urban areas and cover newer geographies in semi-urban and rural areas. Our network team has also upgraded over 7,000 sites with latest TDD technology for 4G on 2300 MHz and deployed Twin Beams and Massive MIMO across major business hubs and residential locations in the state, expanding network capacity over the same spectrum to deliver data speeds despite large number of concurrent users at the same location”, said Siddharth Sharma, CEO (West Bengal), Bharti Airtel.

According to the cellular service provider, Airtel’s optic fiber footprint has also got a boost with the addition of 1,000 kms of fresh fiber rollout, taking the total footprint to 14,000 kms to enable high-speed data transmission.

“We are stepping up our network investments across West Bengal and we will also undertake wide scale deployments of cutting age technology in key business and residential hubs. This will truly add to the smartphone experience for Airtel customers.” Added Sharma.

The network rollout has translated to reaching 51,335 towns and villages across West Bengal.

Keeping consumer obsession at the core of its DNA, Airtel said that it has set itself a target of answering and resolving every single customer query, learn quickly from failures and ensure they don’t get repeated. And the company is taking this message to customers across India through a bold multi-channel marketing campaign. Shashwat Sharma, CMO, Bharti Airtel, said, “We know that ‘ZERO question’ is an impossible utopian thought especially for a telecom brand, but that won’t stop us from trying because we know that the closer we get to ZERO, the happier our customers will be.”

Airtel Promises to go the Extra Mile for its Customers Declares war on service failure and targets resolution of every customer query

Kolkata , June 18, 2020: Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest integrated telco, is further raising the bar as part of its mission to deliver best-in-class services to customers.

Keeping consumer obsession at the core of its DNA, Airtel today said that it has set itself a target of answering and resolving every single customer query, learn quickly from failures and ensure they don’t get repeated. And the company is taking this message to customers across India through a bold multi-channel marketing campaign [‘watch it here https://youtu.be/Gqe3uJLLV3c].

The current times have put telecom services and reliable connectivity at the core of the daily lives of customers. Be it Work from Home, Virtual Classrooms, Online shopping, or Digital Entertainment, telecom networks have become the backbone for accomplishing most things from within the safety of our homes.

Consumer centricity has always been at the heart of everything that Airtel does, but during these testing times, the brand has realized that a network provider’s responsibility towards its customers has never been greater. Airtel acknowledges that it not only has the responsibility to provide access to high-quality telecom services but also to give answers to all their service related queries by responding and resolving them in a quick and transparent manner.

Says Shashwat Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel, “The relationship between Airtel and its customers has never been more important, and to serve them even better we have decided to take our customer obsession to the next level. We know that "ZERO questions" is an IMPOSSIBLE utopian thought especially for a telecom brand, but that won’t stop us from trying because we know that the closer we get to ZERO, the happier our customers will be. We promise to be humble, learn every time we fail and be relentless in our approach. For us, this is not just a campaign, we are now re-engineering the entire organization towards this goal and are obsessed with building a culture of consumer centricity.”

The company has already taken big strides in this journey and these are some of its key recent initiatives to make sure that customers get the best possible service experience:

Network Technology: In the last three years, Airtel has invested over Rs 70,000 crores in high-speed network rollouts. Airtel has led the introduction of new technologies such as pre-5G Massive MIMO and Carrier Aggregation. The result is Airtel being consistently rated as India’s top mobile network by multiple experts.

More recently, Airtel became the first mobile operator in India to launch Voice over Wi-Fi to solve the indoor coverage issues faced by its customers. Today, millions of happy customers enjoy seamless indoor coverage over Airtel Vo-Wi-Fi.

For its busy postpaid consumers, Airtel’s launched Platinum Network. This gives its premium users priority in both network as well as services across their touch-points, so that network and telecom related issues don’t disrupt their hectic schedules.

Digital Gateways: To help customers recharge during COVID-19 lockdown, Airtel launched ‘Superhero’ - a first of its kind program that allowed Airtel customers to recharge the prepaid accounts of fellow Airtel customers through Airtel Thanks app. For every recharge, the Super-hero makes a 4% retail commission. This helped millions of customers who don’t have access to online recharge options or are not digitally savvy. Over a million Airtel customers are registered as Superheroes.

Culture of Customer Obsession: The Airtel Management Board meets every morning to review customer queries, resolution mechanisms and timelines, and the learnings from customer feedback.          

Airtel’s new campaign will run across TV, Digital and Print to communicate the company’s promise to customers. The campaign has been conceived by Dentsu-Taproot, led by Pallavi Chakravarti and team. To watch the TVC click here https://youtu.be/Gqe3uJLLV3c.

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed home broadband, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 423 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2020. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

Airtel Promises to go the Extra Mile for its Customers

Declares war on service failure and targets resolution of every customer query

New Delhi, June 18, 2020: Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest integrated telco, is further raising the bar as part of its mission to deliver best-in-class services to customers.

Keeping consumer obsession at the core of its DNA, Airtel today said that it has set itself a target of answering and resolving every single customer query, learn quickly from failures and ensure they don’t get repeated. And the company is taking this message to customers across India through a bold multi-channel marketing campaign [‘watch it here https://youtu.be/Gqe3uJLLV3c].

The current times have put telecom services and reliable connectivity at the core of the daily lives of customers. Be it Work from Home, Virtual Classrooms, Online shopping, or Digital Entertainment, telecom networks have become the backbone for accomplishing most things from within the safety of our homes.

Consumer centricity has always been at the heart of everything that Airtel does, but during these testing times, the brand has realized that a network provider’s responsibility towards its customers has never been greater. Airtel acknowledges that it not only has the responsibility to provide access to high-quality telecom services but also to give answers to all their service related queries by responding and resolving them in a quick and transparent manner.

Says Shashwat Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel, “The relationship between Airtel and its customers has never been more important, and to serve them even better we have decided to take our customer obsession to the next level. We know that "ZERO questions" is an IMPOSSIBLE utopian thought especially for a telecom brand, but that won’t stop us from trying because we know that the closer we get to ZERO, the happier our customers will be. We promise to be humble, learn every time we fail and be relentless in our approach. For us, this is not just a campaign, we are now re-engineering the entire organization towards this goal and are obsessed with building a culture of consumer centricity.”

The company has already taken big strides in this journey and these are some of its key recent initiatives to make sure that customers get the best possible service experience:

Network Technology: In the last three years, Airtel has invested over Rs 70,000 crores in high-speed network rollouts. Airtel has led the introduction of new technologies such as pre-5G Massive MIMO and Carrier Aggregation. The result is Airtel being consistently rated as India’s top mobile network by multiple experts.

More recently, Airtel became the first mobile operator in India to launch Voice over Wi-Fi to solve the indoor coverage issues faced by its customers. Today, millions of happy customers enjoy seamless indoor coverage over Airtel Vo-Wi-Fi.

For its busy postpaid consumers, Airtel’s launched Platinum Network. This gives its premium users priority in both network as well as services across their touch-points, so that network and telecom related issues don’t disrupt their hectic schedules.

Digital Gateways: To help customers recharge during COVID-19 lockdown, Airtel launched ‘Superhero’ - a first of its kind program that allowed Airtel customers to recharge the prepaid accounts of fellow Airtel customers through Airtel Thanks app. For every recharge, the Super-hero makes a 4% retail commission. This helped millions of customers who don’t have access to online recharge options or are not digitally savvy. Over a million Airtel customers are registered as Superheroes.

Culture of Customer Obsession: The Airtel Management Board meets every morning to review customer queries, resolution mechanisms and timelines, and the learnings from customer feedback.          

Airtel’s new campaign will run across TV, Digital and Print to communicate the company’s promise to customers. The campaign has been conceived by Dentsu-Taproot, led by Pallavi Chakravarti and team. To watch the TVC click here https://youtu.be/Gqe3uJLLV3c.

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed home broadband, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 423 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2020. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

Airtel adds Edtech to its digital portfolio with stake acquisition in kids learning startup - Lattu Kids

Enables Airtel to bring premium digital learning content over its network to make learning fun for millions of kids across India

Lattu Kids becomes the fourth company to join Airtel Startup Accelerator Program       

New Delhi, June 17, 2020: Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest integrated telco, today said that it has acquired a strategic stake in Edtech startup Lattu Media Pvt Ltd (“Lattu Kids”) as part of the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program.

Mumbai based Lattu Kids specializes in digital learning tools for children. Its highly popular Lattu Kids app focuses on improving English vocabulary, English reading and Maths skills for children under the age of 10 years through entertaining, fun learning animated videos and games.

At over 500 mn, India has the second largest number of internet users in the world, driven by affordable smartphones and the lowest 4G data tariffs globally. This deep penetration of internet has also led to wide adoption of online learning tools. The COVID-19 pandemic and closure of schools has further accelerated the adoption of virtual classrooms and digitally enabled learning. It is estimated that in India Edtech will become a USD 2 bn plus industry by 2021.

The investment will enable Airtel to add Edtech to its premium digital content portfolio and give distribution scale to quality learning material from Lattu Kids. Airtel already has over 160 mn monthly active users across its digital platforms – Airtel Thanks app, Airtel Xstream app and Wynk Music. 

Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Bharti Airtel said: “At Airtel, we aspire to support the growth of the start-up ecosystem through our digital platforms. And now more than ever, online education is a critical need for millions of young children who do not have access to regular classrooms. We believe that Lattu Kids can make a positive impact in the space of online education and are excited to have them in our accelerator and partner in their growth.”

Vivek Bhutyani, Co-founder and CEO, Lattu Kids said: “Our Vision with Lattu Kids is to impact learning outcomes for young children in Nursery to Grade 2 and lead this category in India by using Digital content, Gamification and Technology. With Airtel, we have found an equally passionate partner and our synergies in this space will allow us to scale Lattu to millions of kids in India across classes and make it a much-loved home grown EdTech brand.”

Lattu Kids becomes the fourth company to join the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program, which allows start-ups to leverage Airtel’s robust ecosystem, including its core strengths in data, distribution, networks and payments. This includes access to a vast online and offline distribution network that touches 300m+ customers, deep market understanding and platform of global strategic partners. Further, start-ups also get access to advisory services from Airtel’s executive team.       

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed home broadband, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G, 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 423 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2020. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

Airtel Payments Bank launches Suraksha Salary Account solution for India’s MSMEs

The innovative savings account offers FREE dual insurance benefit of Fixed Allowance on Hospitalization and Personal Accident Cover to the account holder

Wide range of banking benefits such as Zero balance requirement, FREE cash withdrawals and deposits at over 500,000 banking points  

Kolkata, June 15, 2020: As India begins to open up following the COVID-19 lockdown, Airtel Payments Bank today announced the launch of ‘Suraksha Salary Account’ - an innovative salary account for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

India’s MSME sector has over 60 Mn units and accounts for 29% of India’s GDP. These units employ large number of informal labour force who are not eligible for social and healthcare benefits as part of their salaries. The lack of any financial protection makes them highly vulnerable, particularly in the current times.

Suraksha Salary account has been designed specifically for this consumer cohort. Through this innovative account construct, MSMEs and other organisations will be able to make cashless payments and also provide a financial security blanket to their employees. Suraksha Salary account offers a wide range of benefits including Hospicash Insurance and Personal Accidental insurance cover given the low penetration of insurance in India.

·         FREE Hospicash Insurance: In the event of hospitalization, the account holder would be entitled to a fixed cover of Rs 400/day up to a maximum of 10 days. The policy will cover COVID-19 as well and mitigate the impact on the account holder due to potential loss of pay and savings during hospitalization.

·         FREE Accidental Insurance: The account holder also gets free of charge group accidental cover of Rs 1 lakh. This ensures added financial protection for the family.

·         Zero Minimum Balance: The account has no minimum balance condition.

·      Easy Withdrawals: The account holder can make convenient cash withdrawals at Airtel Payments Bank’s 500,000 banking points across India. Customers can also make cash deposits and transfer money at these points.

·         Zero charges on cash transactions: There are no charges on cash withdrawals of upto Rs 50,000 and deposits of upto Rs 20,000 in one month. The account holder also gets two free cardless cash withdrawal via IMT at ATMs across the country.

·         FREE bank to bank money transfers across India: the account holder can make online money transfers to any bank across India.

Anubrata Biswas, MD and CEO, Airtel Payments Bank said, “We are delighted to launch Suraksha Salary Account to serve the specific needs of the people employed in India’s MSME segment. Our research reflected how lack of protection makes the workforce susceptible to financial setbacks, particularly in case of illness. With this consumer insight, we developed the Suraksha Salary Account to enable MSMEs to offer financial protection and formal banking experience to their employees. This innovative account is an important addition to our existing portfolio of customized products that are aimed at driving financial inclusion in the country.”

Suraksha Salary Account construct enables businesses to disburse salaries in a seamlessly convenient manner and also maintain records digitally for future references and tax processes. To begin with the product will be available only to new to bank customers. It will be soon made available to the existing customers who wishes to operate their salary accounts with Airtel Payments Bank.

Airtel Payments Bank Ltd.

Airtel Payments Bank is India’s first Payments Bank that launched in January 2017, now boasts of over 40 million+ customers and over 500K banking points across the country. In addition to having a presence in all 29 states of India, Airtel Payments Bank also has an app for Android and iOS users to make banking easier for its rural and urban customers. Airtel Payments Bank aims to take digital banking services to the doorstep of every Indian, particularly in unbanked rural areas, and contribute to the Government’s vision of Digital India and Financial Inclusion.

Telecom operator Airtel has said its retail stores have now opened across most locations and that measures such as 'Concierge Service' have been rolled out for delivery of SIM card at customers' doorsteps or for installation of broadband and DTH.

9^th June, Kolkata : Telecom operator Airtel has said its retail stores have now opened across most locations and that measures such as 'Concierge Service' have been rolled out for delivery of SIM card at customers' doorsteps or for installation of broadband and DTH.

In a note to subscribers, Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal said that while restrictions are lifting in large parts of the country, "there seems to be even more uncertainty" as people are worried about safety of their loved ones, and there is growing concern about incomes and jobs.

"At Airtel, we empathize with this uncertainty. So as each of us adapts to this new context, there is one thing we don't want you to worry about - your need to stay connected," Vittal said.

Outlining measures taken by the company to ensure connectivity and continuation of services in the backdrop of the lockdown and coronavirus pandemic, Vittal said that more than a million customers have already enrolled into its 'Super Heroes' program, and have helped many more millions stay connected.

"If you want to help someone get access to our services or help pay their bills or recharge for them, we have our Super Heroes initiative. More than a million customers have already enrolled into this program and have helped many more millions stay connected," Vittal said. He said the company's retail stores are now open across most locations, and that Airtel will take all necessary precautions to ensure that staff and customers remain safe.

"If you prefer to be served at your home, we now have a Concierge Service and would be delighted to come to your home. Whether it is delivery of a SIM card at your doorstep or an installation of a broadband or DTH, we can do it all," he said, adding that the field teams have been trained on a new contactless delivery and installation protocol.

Airtel Payments Bank’s new campaign showcases simplification and access to digital banking for the emerging India

The campaign theme of “Ab nazdeeki dukaan, aapka bank” underscores Airtel Payments Bank’s deep distribution reach and its innovative ‘at arm’s length’ retail led model 

With over 500,000 banking points Airtel Payments Bank is taking banking to even unbanked rural hamlets across the country and driving financial inclusion 

Highlighting the importance of a deeply distributed network of banking points that can spearhead the country to become financially inclusive as it takes banking services closer to every Indian, Airtel Payments Bank today released a new campaign based on the theme “Ab nazdeeki dukaan, aapka bank”. [Watch TVC here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdc5k1PU9sA]

Conceived by Taproot Dentsu, the campaign will have a 360 degree media mix including TV, print and outdoor which will be rolled out in a phased manner. The campaign is led by a TVC which depicts an interesting story of a college student who is able to get started with a bank account at a familiar neighborhood store and also make a cash withdrawal from the account in a matter of minutes to be able to timely deposit her college tuition fees. All this, given the intrinsic features of Airtel Payments Bank.

Since its inception Airtel Payments Bank has been working towards taking hyper-local banking services to the doorstep of every Indian. For this, in addition to being completely paperless and fully digital, the company built an innovative and strong network of Banking Correspondents who are essentially the hyper local neighborhood stores or the more famously known “kirana” stores that is easily accessible to residents in and around the locality.

Even during the COVID-19 lockdown, Airtel Payments Bank has kept its service engine running during the COVID-19 lockdown and leverage its deep retail based banking network to ensure that basic financial services are at an arm’s length for millions of Indians. Over 200,000 Banking Correspondents of Airtel Payments Bank worked on ground to make sure that customers are able to withdraw cash, make money transfers and even buy a range of insurance (health, life, and general) products without having to step out of their neighborhood and contribute to social distancing norms.

Anubrata Biswas, MD & CEO, Airtel Payments Bank said, “We have always had the end consumer at the heart of everything we do as we inch closer to our vision of taking banking services to the underserved majority. We have been extensively working to innovate and build a differentiated and relevant banking ecosystem that is simple, convenient and easily accessible for everyone. With our unique retail based model of small kiranas, medical store and other neighborhood shops that work as banking points, we have been able to making banking services easily accessible across the deeper pockets of the country.”

Agnello Dias, Co-founder & Chief Creative Officer, Taproot Dentsu said, “Airtel Payments Bank is a sorely-needed advantage in these times and the communication, especially the film, highlights how it can be a life saver when you need it most. The ease and simplicity with which you can open an account is vividly demonstrated in this storyline which dramatizes an emergency in a positive manner.”

Campaign Credits

o   Campaign Leads from Airtel Payments Bank: Udit Jain (Head of Marketing) and Nakul Chaturvedi (Lead ATL, Airtel Payments Bank)

o   Agency: Taproot Dentsu

o   Chief Creative Officer: Agnello Dias, Santosh Padhi

o   Executive Creative Director: Pallavi Chakravarti

o   Account Management Head: Abhishek Kalzunkar

o   Production House: Equinox Films

o   Director: Ram Madhvani

o   Producer: Rhea Prabhu

o   Music: Sameer Uddin

Nodwin Gaming and Airtel announce partnership to take Esports in India to the next level

 Launch ‘Airtel India Esports Tour’ - the first national ranking of Esports players in the country 

New Delhi:May 28, 2020 – Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest integrated telecommunications company, and NODWIN Gaming, South Asia’s leading esports company, today announced a partnership to further grow E-sports in India.

Given India’s large youth population and rapidly growing internet penetration, E-sports has the potential to become a large part of the country’s mainstream sporting culture. It is estimated that by 2021, online gaming will become a USD one billion plus market in India with over 620 million gamers.  

The partnership has been kicked off with the launch of Airtel India Esports Tour, which is the first and largest property of its kind in this segment. It will also have a national ranking and awarding system for Indian Esports players based on their year-long performance across top tournaments will be used as a base to create a points table for all participants.

Airtel India Esports Tour will initially cover all NODWIN tournaments across gaming titles of PUBG Mobile, CS:GO, Clash of Clans, FIFA, etc. The coverage will extend to all iconic NODWIN tournaments such as the India Premiership by NODWIN, Dreamhack India, The Northeast Cup, KO Fight Nights and PAN Fest. This will also cover NODWIN operated tournaments such as the PUBG Mobile Pro league in India.

Post the culmination of the annual tour, the final leaderboard across games will be presented to recognize and reward the winners at an awards show celebrating the key players in the ecosystem. The esports athletes, the teams, the talent, the best plays, etc. 

The broadcast of the Airtel India Esports Tour will be available on Airtel’s digital platforms and help with taking this emerging format to newer audiences.

Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Bharti Airtel said: “At Airtel, it has always being our aspiration to support a digital India. Gaming is the next frontier of entertainment and it gives us great pleasure to announce our partnership with NODWIN to unlock the potential of E-sports in India. E-sports is taking a higher share of where our youth spend their time and we look forward to a deep partnership with NODWIN to evolve this space and support the youth in India.”

“NODWIN Gaming believes that by binding the elements of independent tournaments into a single storyline we will give rise to a new culture in the competitive world of Indian esports. The teams and players will now look up to perform throughout the year rather than focusing on few big standalone tournaments in a year.” said Akshat Rathee, Founder and MD, NODWIN Gaming.

Initially, the Airtel India Esports Tour will be seeded by NODWIN by its extensive tournament network but will aspire to be a platform where all tournaments will carry weightage independent of the organizer. The ecosystem will allow the flexibility of choice for players to play what they want and when they want.

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed home broadband, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G, 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 423 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2020. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

About NODWIN Gaming:

NODWIN Gaming, South Asia's leading esports company, is an independent subsidiary of mobile gaming company Nazara Technologies. Formed in 2014, the India based company has since produced over 10,000 hours of gaming content, has been watched by over 100 million+ viewers and organized 100+ gaming and esports events.

Through its strategic partnerships with global publishers and partners including ESL, Valve, Blizzard and Tencent, NODWIN Gaming has introduced Indians to some of the best global experiences such as DreamHack, the India Premiership, Gaming merchandise and Gaming influencer management services. NODWIN actively works with media broadcasters on offering Media Rights for its national and global properties for broadcast. NODWIN Gaming builds and operates its own esports IPs and currently operates in India, the Middle East and South Africa.

To offer the best-in-class service experience to its customers, Airtel acquires strategic stake in Conversational AI focused Startup – Voicezen

Will give Airtel early access to cutting edge technologies being developed by Voicezen

Marks Airtel’s third investment under its fast expanding Startup Accelerator Program 

New Delhi, May 21, 2020: As part of its strategy to deliver a highly differentiated service experience to its customers, Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) has acquired a strategic stake in Voicezen, an early stage startup focused on conversational AI technologies. The acquisition has been made by the company under its fast expanding Airtel Startup Accelerator Program.

Gurgaon based Voicezen has been working on developing advanced solutions that leverage machine learning, AI, speech to text and voice technologies to offer real time analytics to help brands serve customers better.

The global Conversational AI Market Size is expected to grow from USD 4.2 billion in 2019 to USD 15.7 billion by 2024*. The megatrend will be driven by surging demand for AI powered customer support services and omni-channel deployment. Increasing customer engagement through social media platforms and integration of advanced AI capabilities will offer massive opportunities.

The investment will give Airtel preferred access to Voicezen’s technologies, which can be deployed across its customer touch points in multiple languages. These intelligent solutions will offer real time analytics and insights to make Airtel’s conversations with its customers more engaging and frictionless and enable faster resolution. It will also allow Airtel to make contextual offers to customers based on real time conversations.   

Voicezen is the third startup to become a part of the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program. By becoming a part of this Program, Voicezen will get the opportunity to deploy its technologies on a massive scale and work closely with Airtel on developing India-first platforms of the future.

Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer - Bharti Airtel said: “As a customer obsessed organization, Airtel is continuously innovating to make their experience even better. AI is a big focus area for Airtel given the deep positive impact the technology can have in transforming customer experience. Voicezen has built some promising products that are very relevant for a market like India. We are delighted to welcome them to the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program and look forward to partnering them in scaling these innovative ‘Made in India, for India’ applications and implement them in the real world.”

Apurba Nath, Founder - Voicezen added, “Voicezen helps brands deliver a better customer experience in Indian languages using Conversational AI. Having worked on AI solutions in the past, we knew what works well in a lab most often doesn't work in the real world, because either the training data is not large and relevant or the problem has little business significance. Our partnership with Airtel helps us solve these challenges. With this strategic investment, we will work even more closely with them to continuously improve our AI models and build out an enterprise grade, battle hardened product that will make customer interactions more efficient, especially in this post Covid world where business operations are facing large disruptions.”

Airtel Startup Accelerator Program allows start-ups to leverage Airtel’s robust ecosystem, including its core strengths in data, distribution, networks and payments. This includes access to a vast online and offline distribution network that touches 300m+ customers, deep market understanding and platform of global strategic partners. Further, start-ups also get access to advisory services from Airtel’s executive team. In India, Airtel serves customers across mobile, landline and DTH verticals.

*Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/conversational-ai-market-49043506.html

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed home broadband, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G, 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 423 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2020. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com