Airtel In Deal With 14 World Telcos

Bharti Airtel the mother firm of Airtle Uganda has signed a partnership deal with an alliance of global telcos that will see it offer cheaper roaming services outside the 17 countries that the Indian firm operates in.

Airtel is the largest telecom service provider across the continent in terms of geographical reach.

Airtel on Monday said it has joined the Bridge Alliance, which is made up of 14 mobile phone firms, in a pact that allows Airtel’s subscribers to access voice and data services through the partners’ network.

The countries covered by Bridge Alliance operators include Australia, Bangladesh, East Timor, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

The alliance has 714 roaming agreements including 238 each for voice and data as well as 238 for Pre-Paid services.

The deal will see Airtel benefit from discounted roaming rates agreed among the partners as opposed to the commercial market rates levied between the operators before the deal.

Additionally, the partners expect to share their expertise, research and empirical evidence gathered from other markets within the alliance.

Bridge Alliance is a global mobilenetwork made up of 14 operators serving over 500 million customers, while Airtel has operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa.