The founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Bharti Mittal, has won one of the most prestigious honors in the telecom industry the GSMA Lifetime Achievement Award.
The news was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a major telecom industry meeting point. The ceremony was attended by influential people, including Spain’s King Felipe VI, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and other world leaders.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is not awarded every year. It is given to pioneers who have revolutionized the world of global communications. Mittal was honored for establishing Bharti Airtel as a telecom giant and taking mobile communications to emerging markets, especially in Africa. Today, Airtel serves more than half a billion customers in India and other African countries.
To many people in Africa, Mittal and Airtel are synonymous with the expansion of mobile communications to places that were once not connected to the world in the past. Mittal has always stressed the importance of reaching out to people in rural areas and taking telecom services beyond major cities.
Mittal was the Chairman of the GSMA from 2017 to 2018 and worked hard to promote policies that support investments in telecom infrastructure and encourage digital inclusion.
“I am deeply honored to receive this recognition and offer my sincere thanks to the GSMA. I accept this honor as my personal milestone, as recognition of India’s telecom journey, the Indian telecom industry’s collective spirit, and the arrival of Indian telecom operators on the global stage. It is also recognition of the telecom industry’s journey, which has connected billions of people and is the industry of the people, the industry of the customers we serve, the industry of the people who built our institutions, and the industry of the people who believe in the transformative power of telecom,” Mittal said in his speech while collecting the award
Telecommunications is a powerful force that expands opportunity, places essential services in people’s hands, and unleashes human potential. It has been my privilege to have been able to play a role in the development of this powerful driver of modern progress. As we continue to innovate, we will continue to work with partners and stakeholders to ensure that growth leads to greater equity and future opportunities.”
Mittal has been recognized by the GSMA on several occasions. He was honored with the Chairman’s Award in 2008 and 2016.
This latest recognition places him among a small group of global telecom leaders whose work has left a lasting mark on how billions of people connect, communicate and do business today.
