bharti

Another person close to the matter said that Bharti and Vodafone could be fined more than $1bn each.

Gupta may follow in the footsteps of his wife , Bharti Kher, another newly minted star .

On Monday, India's Bharti Airtel Ltd. selected Huawei as one of its suppliers for a third-generation wireless network.

Bharti's investors seem to agree: the firm's shares fell sharply on Monday when news of discussions with Zain emerged.

It also has among the lowest prices anywhere, and a home-grown, world-class operator, Bharti Airtel.

And Bharti's size and clout should allow it to pay much less than Zain for network towers and the like in Africa.

India's Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN resurrected merger talks to create one of the world's biggest mobile-phone companies.

This year Tesco and Carrefour pulled out of negotiations to launch joint ventures in India akin to Wal-Mart's with Bharti.

Under the name Bharti Wal-Mart, the new company plans to open a dozen or so cash-and-carry stores by 2015.

One such agreement, between Bharti Enterprises and Wal-Mart, is said to have won approval from the government last week.

It helps, too, that Bharti brings expertise of running low-cost operations in markets where consumers have very low incomes.

But critics of the proposed deal worry that Bharti may have over-bid for Zain's African businesses.

Its competitors, Bharti Airtel and Idea, have debt of about two-thirds or less of this level.

Bharti's first supermarket is due to open early next year.

However the pantomime plays out, Bharti should take note of the sometimes chaotic environment it is wading into.

Bharti, in particular, is attracting attention from telecoms firms worldwide because of its innovative business model.

The innovative Indian company Bharti offers the world's cheapest telecommunication service at just one cent per minute.

Bharti plans a retail business of its own.

Bharti Enterprises has been discussing a similar deal with Tesco and most recently with Wal-Mart.

In 2010, Indian mobile operator Bharti Airtel paid $9 billion for the African telecom operations of Kuwait-headquartered Zain.

Bharti Airtel, which completed its $10. 7 billion acquisition of Zain Africa, is a world-leader in improving services while reducing costs.

Bharti Airtel Ltd. , India's largest telecom company by users, has said it will adopt the protocol.

Bharti and Vodafone declined to comment and the other groups could not be reached.

Bharti has outsourced network planning and IT backbone and converted its fixed costs to variable costs.

Bharti Airtel, a mobile-phone firm with 140m subscribers in India, is rapidly expanding into Africa, too.

Bharti on the other hand has a good deal of experience in wringing out profits in a poor country where competition is growing.

Bharti Airtel is a striking example of India's strengths over China.

Bharti sees a chance to stake a claim in the fastest growing region in the world and to do so profitably.

In 15 regions, India's biggest operator, Bharti Airtel, even offered to pay.

Bharti finds Africa attractive because the cellular penetration rate there is still only about 40%.

The Bharti Airtel story is being repeated in other sectors of Africa's economy such as autos, steel, agriculture, and education.