Bharti Airtel bagged as much as five awards at the Voice & Data Telecom Awards 2009 including awards for Top Telecom Services Provider of the Year 2009, Manoj Kohli, CEO and Joint MD of Bharti Airtel, as the Voice & Data Telecom Person of the Year 2009, Top VSAT Player 2009, the Top NLD Player 2009 and Top Cellular Services Provider 2009.

According to Voice & Data, “Mr. Manoj Kohli was honored for making Bharti Airtel a world class telecom company. Airtel crossed the 100 million subscriber mark last year and became the third largest single country mobile services operator in the world. For the first time, the company emerged as the numero uno operator in the V&D Top 10. Under his leadership Airtel focused on rural markets with 60% of its new customers additions coming from the rural area and is now actively expanding overseas.”

Manoj Kohli was presented with the Voice & Data Telecom Person of the Year 2009 award by Dr J S Sarma, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Receiving the award, Mr. Manoj Kohli, CEO & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel, said, “We are delighted to receive this prestigious award and thank Voice & Data for this honour. Committed to globally benchmarked quality, Bharti Airtel believes in constantly innovating so as to bring the best to our over 100 million customers. I am also personally honoured to be named the Telecom Person of the Year which I owe to Team Airtel. At Bharti Airtel, we believe in catalyzing national growth and we are committed to take on bigger challenges in future."