Telecom Man of the Year 2006 - SUNIL BHARTI MITTAL

Sunil Bharti Mittal, CMD, Bharti Airtel has been awarded
the 'Telecom Man of the Year' by VOICE&DATA. Prithipal Singh, former CMD
of BSNL handed over the award to Mittal in a glittering ceremony in New Delhi,
which witnessed the participation of several luminaries from the Communications
industry.

Mittal was presented the award in recognition of his
leadership, vision and entrepreneurial skills, with which he made Airtel the
country's top mobile service company. Graduating from Punjab University at a
young age of 18, he founded Bharti in 1985. Today the company has a market
capitalization of over $15 bn and a headcount of over 14,300. Under his
leadership, Bharti has grown successfully by partnering with leading companies
such as Singapore Telecom and Vodafone

Upon accepting the award, an elated Mittal said the award
was a big recognition of his efforts that he had put in to make Airtel a
world-class service provider. “Wherever I've visited, industry people
discuss how Indian telecom industry has moved forward, not just in adoption of
sheer technology but also in making telephony quite an affordable proposition.
Today at 1 cent a minute, India is transforming the rural hinterlands, where
people from start-up societies are lapping up phones like never before. 4-5 mn
mobile subscribers per month was a distant dream a few years back. This is
constantly being achieved and is a testimony to Indian policy makers, and more
importantly, the service providers of the country,” Mittal said.

.

He said, “Yet a lot remains to be done. Nearly 50% of the
population is still out of the ambit of mobile telephony. And most of them sit
in rural areas and can't afford the present-day tariffs. So a tariff much
lesser than a cent a minute is going to be a great challenge. For this, the
industry is gearing up. The good news is that the equipment manufacturers are
supporting our cause of telephony and I have no doubt that India will achieve
40-50% telephone penetration, which is its legitimate aspiration. I personally
believe that by 2010, India will have three to four hundred million mobile
subscribers if we move comfortably and four to five million subscribers if we
push a little bit harder.”

Bharti Under Mittal's Leadership

Became the first India telecom company to venture outside India Crossed the Rs 11,000 crore mark, registering 46% growth y-o-y Customer base crossed the 19 mn mark, retained #1 position  Evangelized the increase in FDI limit in the country. Brought Vodafone in India and recorded the single-largest foreign investment worth $1.5 bn Setting new benchmarks in product and process innovations and partnerships Airtel becomes one of the most admired brands in the country

The VOICE&DATA Telecom Man of The Year award is given
every year to a person who has played a key role for India's telecom industry,
taking it to greater heights. The selection process that took more than two
months started with nominations from the telecom industry. The five-member jury
for selecting the winner comprised leading names in the telecom industry and
media. Prithipal Singh, former CMD of BSNL, chaired the jury and was assisted by
P Balaji, president, Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association; Deepak
Maheshwari, secretary, Internet Service Providers Association of India; Wg. Cdr.
BG Bhalla (Retd), secretary general, VSAT Service Providers Association of India
and Prasanto Kumar Roy, president and chief editor of VOICE&DATA.

Also during the event, 27 top telecom companies were given
the V&D100 Awards for excellence in business performance in FY 2005-06.
These include EMC, Nokia, LG, Cisco, Wipro Infotech, HCL Comnet, Huawei, Tyco,
Sterlite Opticals, VSNL, Avaya, ProCall, Polycom, Atrie Technologies, Eci
Telecom, Hughes Communications India, ITI, BSNL, and Bharti Teletech.

Sunil Bharti Mittal,
CMD, Bharti Group receiving VOICE&DATA 'Telecom
Man of The Year Award 2006' from Prithipal
Singh, ex-CMD BSNL

AK Sinha,
CMD,
BSNL receiving the award for 'Top Telecom Service Company' from Prithipal
Singh, ex-CMD, BSNL Karan Bajwa,
vice president (govt & defence), Cisco (India & SAARC) receiving
the award for 'Top Enterprise Equipment Company' from Prithipal
Singh, ex-CMD, BSNL

Ashish Chowdhary,
country head (India &South Asia Networks), Nokia, receiving the award
for 'Top Telecom Equipment Company' from Prithipal
Singh, ex-CMD, BSNL Arun Gupta,
head, wholesale voice business (ILD & NLD services), VSNL receiving
the Award for 'Top ILD Operator' from Shyam
Malhotra, editor-in-chief, CyberMedia

Ashish Chowdhary,
country head (India &South Asia Networks), Nokia, receiving the award
for 'Top Infrastructure Equipment Company' from Prithipal
Singh, ex-CMD, BSNL Tony Baek,
country head (CDMA Terminals), LG, receiving the Award for 'Top Fixed
Wireless Phones, CDMA Handsets Company' from Prasanto
K Roy, president and chief editor, VOICE&DATA

Sanjay Nandrajog,
executive director (Northern Region), Bharti Airtel receiving the 'Top
Cellular Services Company' award from P
Balaji, president, TEMA Ashish Chowdhary,
country head (India &South Asia Networks), Nokia, receiving the award
for 'Top Mobile Phones, GSM Handsets Company' from Shyam
Malhotra, editor-in-chief, CyberMedia

AK Jain, vice
president, corporate business unit, Wipro Infotech receiving the award for
'Top Network Integration, Network Security Services Company' from P
Balaji, president, TEMA Laxmi Narayan Nayak,
regional tech manager (South Asia), EMC receiving the award for 'Top
Network Storage Company' from Deepak
Maheshwari, secretary, Internet Service Providers
Association of India

Michael Lin,
director, marketing, Huawei receiving the award for 'Top Broadband
Equipment Company' from NK Goyal,
chairman emeritus, TEMA Karan Bajwa,
vice president (govt & defence), Cisco (India & SAARC) receiving
the award for 'Top Router, Switch, WLAN Company' from SC
Khanna, secretary general, Association of Unified
Telecom Service Providers of India

Malay Kalra,
vice president, operations, ProCall receiving the award for 'Top Radio
Trunking Company' from Prasanto K
Roy, president and chief editor, VOICE&DATA Yugal Sharma,
country manager, Polycom receiving the award for 'Top A/V Conferencing
Company' from NK Goyal,
chairman emeritus, TEMA

B Ravichandran,
managing director (India and SAARC), Atrie Technologies receiving the
award for 'Top Modem Company' from Deepak
Maheshwari, secretary, Internet Service Providers
Association of India Kiran Pande,
country manager, ECI Telecom receiving the

award for 'Top Transmission Equipment Company' from

Deepak Maheshwari,
secretary, Internet Service Providers Association of India

Shivaji Chatterjee,
assistant vice president, sales, Hughes Communications India receiving the
award for 'Top VSAT Company' from SC
Khanna, secretary general, Association of Unified
Telecom Service Providers of India Shankar Roy Chowdhary,
general manager, marketing, Agilent Technologies India receiving the award
for 'Top T&M Company' from SC
Khanna, secretary general, Association of Unified
Telecom Service Providers of India

Subramanyam P,
senior vice president, product engineering solutions, Wipro Technologies
receiving the award for 'Top Telecom Software Company' from Prasanto
K Roy, president and chief editor, VOICE&DATA Rahul Sharma,
chief marketing officer, Sterlite Optical Technologies receiving the award
for 'Top Telecom Cables Company' from Deepak
Maheshwari, secretary, Internet Service Providers
Association of India

Rajesh Thakur,
general manager, APAC business, HCL Comnet receiving the award for 'Top
Network Management Services Company' from P
Balaji, president TEMA AK Sinha,
CMD,
BSNL receiving the award for 'Top Fixed NLD, ISP Operator' from Shyam
Malhotra, editor-in-chief, CyberMedia

Rajni K Agarwal,
additional GM, ITI, receiving the award for 'Top Telecom Turnkey Company'
from Prithipal Singh, ex-CMD, BSNL Sandeep mongia,
GM, VSAT business, HCL Comnet receiving the award for 'Top VSAT Operator'
from Prasanto K Roy, president and chief
editor, VOICE&DATA


KK Shetty,
director, sales (India and SAARC), Tyco receiving the Award for 'Top
Structured Cabling Company' from Prasanto K Roy,
president and chief editor, VOICE&DATA Soum Mukherjee,
director, marketing, Avaya receiving the Award for 'Top Enterprise Voice
Solutions Company' from Prasanto K Roy,
president and chief Editor, VOICE&DATA

PawAn Kapur,
CEO, Bharti Teletech receiving the Award for 'Top Fixed Phone Company'
from Shyam Malhotra, editor-in-chief, CyberMedia Heart-to-Heart:
Prithipal Singh and Sunil Bharti mittal