Bharti Enterprises, India's leading private telecom service provider, Tuesday announced a partnership with British telecom giant Vodafone Plc. to provide telecom services in the Channel Islands -- Jersey and Guernsey, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported.

Jersey and Guernsey are a group of British dependent islands comprising a population of over 170,000.

An agreement was also signed between Bharti's wholly owned subsidiaries -- Jersey Airtel Ltd. and Guernsey Airtel Ltd., and British Vodafone.

Though the partnership was announced Tuesday, Bharti Enterprises had been granted a license to provide mobile services in the two islands in 2006.

"At Bharti, it has always been our endeavor to bring world- class services to our customers. We are happy to partner Vodafone to offer services tailored to the needs of customers in this region," IANS quoted Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairperson of Bharti Enterprises, as saying.

The services will be offered under the "Airtel-Vodafone" brand name and will be launched soon.

It will also offer various services of Vodafone such as Vodafone Passport, which is a simple roaming price plan; Vodafone Simply, a straightforward voice and data package; and Vodafone Mobile Connect Card for laptops.

Source: Xinhua