| Bharti Airtel, India's leading mobile service provider, will launch its full-fledge operation dedicated for small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) by the first half of 2007. |
| Talking to Business Standard, Vinod Sawhny, joint president, enterprise, Bharti Airtel Ltd, said, "By the first half of 2007, we will be introducing new products for the SME segment." |
| He further said that the company would launch a full-fledge business for the SME segment and develop it as an integral part of the company's business. |
| Currently, the company provides telecom solutions to the SME segment at a minuscule scale. The major business of the company for its end-to-end telecom solutions is for the corporates segment. The company claims to cater to 1,500 large corporates. |
| "We will be providing all kinds of services tailored to the needs and the size of the SMEs," said Sawhny, adding, "There is huge business potential in this segment as there are 6.7 million SMEs in India and it is completely untapped." |
| The company plans to focus on the SMEs as its total telecom market size is estimated to be worth Rs 10,000 crore. |
| Airtel will provide voice, data management , Internet and many more product as per the requirements of the SME segment. "The products will be finalised by our SME service department," he said. |
| Recently, Bharti Airtel had entered into a strategic tie-up with Microsoft that will enable Airtel subscribers to use Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0. With this, subscribers can access the MS Office, multimedia functionalities such as camera, MP3 and video recording and a host of business applications on their mobile phones. |
| The service will available on the latest HP I-Paq and I-Mate handsets only. |
| According to market sources, this move is seen as the company's major plan to tap the SME customers across India. |
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