Airtel Bangladesh


Airtel Bangladesh Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the indian multinational company Bharti Airtel, was a mobile network operator in Bangladesh. In January 2016, Bharti Airtel announced that it would merge its operations in Bangladesh into Robi.

Re-branding

In 2010, Warid Telecom sold a majority 70% stake in the company to India's Bharti Airtel Limited for US$300 million. Bharti's proposal also included an initial $300-million investment in Warid for creating new shares in the company. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission approved the deal on 4 Jan 2010. Bharti Airtel Limited took management control of the company and its board, and re-branded the company's services under its own 'airtel' brand from 20 December 2010.
In March, 2013, Warid Telecom sold its rest 30% share to Bharti Airtel's Singapore-based concern Bharti Airtel Holdings Pte Limited for US$85 million.
On 8 September 2013, Airtel Bangladesh received 5 MHz of the 3G spectrum at US$1.25 million.

Merger Details

In January 2016, Robi and Airtel Bangladesh announced that they intended to merge their operations in Bangladesh, that the combined entity would be called Robi, which would serve about 32 million subscribers, and in which Axiata Group would own 68.7% of the shares, Bharti Group would own 25.0%, and the remaining 6.3% owned by NTT DoCoMo. The merger was completed in November 2016.