in 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network licences auctioned in india. one of the conditions for the delhi cellular license was that the bidder have some experience as a telecom operator. so, mittal clinched a deal with the french telecom group vivendi. he was one of the first indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecom business as a major growth area. his plans were finally approved by the government in 1994 and he launched services in delhi in 1995, when bharti cellular limited (bcl) was formed to offer cellular services under the brand name airtel. within a few years bharti became the first telecom company to cross the 2-million mobile subscriber mark. bharti also brought down the std/isd cellular rates in india under brand name 'indiaone'.