[7] Airtel is credited with pioneering the strategic management of outsourcing all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the 'minutes factory' model of low cost and high volumes.

Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated and entered into a technical tie-up with Siemens AG of Germany for the manufacture of electronic push-button phones.

[14] In May 2008, it emerged that Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company with coverage in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by an Indian firm.

However, both sides emphasize the tentative nature of the talks, while The Economist magazine noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying up," as MTN has more subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage.

[16] In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it was in talks with MTN and the companies agreed to discuss the potential transaction exclusively by 31 July 2009.

Later, Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network across the country.

[24][25] In May 2006, it emerged that Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company with operations in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by an Indian firm.

[32] Airtel has reported that its revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 grew by 53% to US$3.2 billion compared to the previous year, newly acquired Zain Africa division contributed US$911 million to the total.

[39] On 11 August 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire a 100% stake in Telecom Seychelles for US$62 million taking its global presence to 19 countries.

The US$34 million SEAS project is aimed at improving Seychelles' global connectivity by building a 2,000 km undersea high-speed link to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

[41] On 24 May 2012, Airtel announced an agreement to acquire a 60% stake in Wireless Business Services Private Limited (WBSPL) at an investment of ₹9.07 billion (US$100 million).

[42] WBSPL was a joint venture founded by Qualcomm and held BWA spectrum in the telecom circles of Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai.

[46] On 18 October 2013, Airtel announced that it had acquired 100 percent equity shares of WBSPL for an undisclosed sum,[47][48] making it a wholly owned subsidiary.

[49][50] Airtel purchased Augere Wireless Broadband India Private Limited, a company that owned 4G spectrum in the Chhattisgarh-Madhya Pradesh circle for an undisclosed sum in December 2015.

[55][56] Business Standard reported that it was a no-cash deal, but would cost Airtel ₹1,600 crore over a 10-year period due to spectrum license payments.

Singapore-based Aqilliz is a blockchain-enabled MediaTech startup offering a new age middleware technology for the media marketplace and create a more collaborative digital marketing environment.

In May 2012, Airtel Broadband and some other Indian ISPs temporarily blocked file sharing websites such as Vimeo, Megavideo, and The Pirate Bay, without giving any legal information to customers.

[82] Airtel Business[83] consists largely of six products: cloud and managed services, digital signage, NLD/ILD connectivity (VSAT / MPLS / IPLC and Ethernet products), Wi-Fi dongles, voice solutions[buzzword] (like toll-free numbers, TracMate, and automated media reading) and conferencing solutions (VoIP, audio, video, and web conferencing), serving industry verticals like BFSI, IT/ITeS, manufacturing, hospitality and government.

Airtel was the sixth mobile phone carrier to enter the Bangladesh market, and originally launched commercial operations under the brand name "Warid Telecom" on 10 May 2007.

Warid Telecom International LLC, an Abu Dhabi–based consortium, sold a majority 70% stake in the company to India's Bharti Airtel Limited for US$300 million.

[38] Robi at present is a joint venture between Axiata Group of Malaysia, Bharti Airtel of India and NTT Docomo Inc. of Japan.

[99] As of 2014[update], the service is available in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Ghana, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia only for international roamers from Airtel Africa.

Ericsson will modernize and upgrade Airtel's mobile networks in Africa with the latest technology including its multi-standard RBS 6000 base station.

Bharti Airtel signed a five-year deal with ESPN Star Sports to become the title sponsor of the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament.

[107] In August 2014, TRAI rejected a proposal from telecom companies to make messaging application firms share part of their revenue with the carriers or the government.

[113] Later on 29 December 2014, Airtel announced that it would not be implementing the planned changes, pointing out that there were reports that TRAI would be soon releasing a consultation paper on the issue.

"[118] In October 2016, India's telecom regulator TRAI recommended imposing a combined penalty of ₹3,050 crore (equivalent to ₹44 billion or US$510 million in 2023) on three mobile network operators — Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular — for denying interconnection to Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), the latest entrant into India's telecom service.

"[125] Ehraz Ahmed was the first to observe this security vulnerability, and he released a video demonstrating a script being used to obtain information from the Airtel's mobile app's API.