Airtel signs global deal with Opera Browser

BHARTI Airtel, a leading integrated telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, announced that it has signed a global arrangement with Opera Software to offer a customised and co-branded version of Opera Mini Internet browser for Airtel mobile customers across its operations.

With this, over 253 million Airtel customers across countries including India, South Asia and Africa will now be able to leverage Opera Mini’s unique proxy-server-based technology to compress data by up to 90 per cent and decrease their data transfer costs.

Designed for speed and ease of use, Opera Mini provides remarkably fast browsing on nearly any mobile phone. It is proven to make browsing up to nine times as fast as client-only mobile browsers on both 2/2.5G and 3/3.75G networks. With its small footprint and high level of usability, Opera Mini provides a consistent user experience across a broad range of handsets.

“In today’s African markets, data services are quickly becoming as important to our customers as voice services. This is why Airtel is committed to providing consumers with the most innovative and efficient products and services, which will have a positive impact on their experience.

“By leveraging Opera’s tried-and-tested set of solutions that lead to consistent and full-web user experience, we are excited to provide a superior browsing platform to Airtel mobile customers in 17 countries of our operations in Africa. We are confident that this association would be instrumental in helping us deliver a truly customised, enhanced and optimised browsing experience for our data users,” said Andre Beyers, chief marketing officer, Airtel Africa.

“Our primary drive is to provide the best user experience, no matter what device people use. There are millions of users with basic mobile phones instead of smartphones, and Opera Mini gives even the most basic phone a smartphone-like web experience,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software.