The company was awarded a mobile phone operator license in 2006 and was scheduled to start operations in early 2007, however, the company didn't commence services until 12 January 2009,[3] with approximately 3 million subscribers of the Sri Lankan mobile market as of June 2024.
[6] Bharti Airtel has been featured in Forbes Asia's Fab 50 list, rated amongst the best-performing companies in the world in the BusinessWeek IT 100 list 2007, and voted as India's most innovative company in a survey by The Wall Street Journal.
[citation needed] Airtel Sri Lanka commenced commercial operations of services on 13 January 2009.
[8] On November Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) approved airtel high speed 4G 850 MHz band operate for indoor coverage.
By November 2021, the telco added over 2,000 sites along with 400 additional towers commissioned across the country following its 4G launch.