Bharti Airtel, Asia’s leading integrated telecommunication service provider, today announced its appointment Olof Haag as Chairman & Country Head of Bharti Airtel Lanka Pvt. Ltd. A seasoned telecom industry professional, Olof will spearhead Bharti Airtel’s foray into the Sri Lankan telecom market.

Welcoming Olof’s appointment, President, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel Limited, Sanjay Kapoor said, “We are delighted to have Olof on board. I am confident that his rich experience in the telecom sector will go a long way in fulfilling our objective of providing world-class services to customers and becoming a leading player in the Sri Lankan market.’’
Olof has extensive experience in the telecom sector. He began his career with Ericsson and has over the years worked in various senior positions in the company in key markets across the world, particularly, in Asia. He was Vice President Ericsson Asia Pacific Ltd. and was responsible for market development in the Asia Pacific. He has been the Chairman of the Board of Ericsson India and also chaired the Boards of Ericsson in several Asian markets.

Prior to joining Bharti Airtel Lanka Pvt. Ltd., Olof was Chairman of The Asia Consulting Bureau Pvt. Ltd., Sri Lanka. He will be supported by a Chief Executive Officer, to be appointed in due course.

Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is India’s leading integrated telecom services provider with an aggregate of 46.76 million customers, as of end July 2007, consisting of 44.76 million mobile customers. Bharti Airtel has been rated among the best performing companies in the world in the BusinessWeek IT 100 list 2007.

Bharti Airtel is structured into three strategic business units - Mobile services, Broadband & Telephone (B&T) services and Enterprise services. The mobile business provides mobile and fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles.

The B&T business provides broadband and telephone services in 94 cities. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtel’s high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 40,000 kms, covering all the major cities in the country.

The company has two international landing stations in Chennai, that connects two submarine cable systems - i2i to Singapore and SEA-ME-WE-4 to Europe.