India-based Bharti Airtel, the new owner of Zain’s African assets has begun the re-branding process across the 16 operations in the region.

With the unveiling of the new brand identity, Airtel becomes the master brand for all the group’s 19 operations in Asia and Africa covering over 200 million customers. In Africa, Airtel replaces the Zain brand across the board, with the Zap mobile money service re-branded Airtel Money with immediate effect.

According to Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of Bharti: ” Our African customers will now be able to enjoy the same best-in-class brand experience as our customers across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. We remain committed to taking our network deeper into Africa, ensuring our services touch the common man and bridge the digital divide in the continent.”

Zain completed the $10.7bn sale of its African operations (excluding Morocco and Sudan) to Bharti in June of this year, allowing the Middle Eastern firm to will refocus on its “highly cash generative operations” at home.

As part of the unveiling the new brand, Airtel also announced the launch of a new ultra low cost handset package which effectively provides a Nokia mobile phone free of charge to all new subscribers. The package is priced at around $23 and includes a Nokia 1280, Airtel SIM card and the equivalent value in Airtel talk time and text messages.