Aircel is an Indian mobile network operator headquartered in Gurgaon that offers voice and 2G and 3G data services. Maxis Communications holds a 74% stake and Sindya Securities and Investments holds the remaining 26%. Aircel was founded by C Sivasankaran and commenced operations in Tamil Nadu in 1999. It is the fifth largest mobile service provider in India with a subscriber base of 90.32 million subscribers as of June 2017. Aircel is a market leader in Tamil Nadu and has considerable presence in Odisha, Assam and North-East telecom circles.
Video Aircel
History
Aircel was founded by Chinnakannan Sivasankaran and started its operations in the Tamil Nadu telecom circle in 1999. It became the leading operator in Tamil Nadu and one of the fastest growing mobile operators in India. Malaysian telecom company Maxis Communications bought a 74% stake in the company from Sivasankaran in 2005. The remaining 26% stake is held by Sindya Securities and Investments promoted by Suneeta Reddy, Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals.
In 2012, as a part of a major re-organization in its operations, the company scaled down its operations in five telecom circles, namely Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala and Punjab. In April 2015, Aircel relaunched its service in Kerala.
Aircel has planned to shut down its operations in unprofitable circles including, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (West) from 30 January 2018.
Merger with Reliance Communications
Reliance Communications (RCom) has called off plans to merge its wireless business with Aircel, citing legal and regulatory uncertainties as well as 'intervention of vested interests to derail the deal'. Aircel is facing too many challenges as Mukesh Ambani led jio 4g operator is getting massive growth. Also airtel,vodafone and idea has cut the data and calling prices heavily.Since Aircel does not has 4g technology in any circle,it may also look for some other business as Aircel C.E.O said in a press meeting.
Maps Aircel
Services
3G
On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Aircel paid INR 65 billion for spectrum in 13 circles: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, North East, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, UP East and West Bengal. It paid US$1.44 billion (INR 79.1 billion) for the 3G spectrum. The company, as of November 2012 has about 5 million 3G customers. Aircel has introduced new price plans for its consumers and are termed to be the cheapest in the country. Following the key players in 3G, Aircel also slashed its 3G tariff. In 2011, Aircel became the launch partner for Apple iPhone 4 along with Bharti Airtel.
4G
In June 2010, Aircel paid INR 34.38 billion for acquiring wireless broadband spectrum in eight circles: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, North East, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Aircel launched 4G services in Tamil Nadu and Jammu & Kashmir in August 2014, becoming the only private telecom operator to offer all the three existing technologies of 2G, 3G and 4G in these markets. Chinese equipment maker ZTE announced on 30 December 2013, that it had won a contract to deploy a 4G broadband network based on LTE technology for Aircel. The LTE network will be launched in Tamil Nadu and will be expanded later to other circles. On 16 July 2014, it launched 4G services in four circles Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Odisha.
Business Solutions
Aircel Business Solutions (ABS), part of Aircel, sells enterprise solutions such as Multiprotocol Label Switching Virtual Private Networks (MPLS VPNs), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and managed video services on wireless platforms including WI-AX.
Network connectivity
Aircel offers poor network coverage in Delhi & NCR circle. It uses radio link time out technology without which the call drop rates will be significantly higher and many customers reported this . In a survey conducted in 2015 by Mint and InstaVaani in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata, it was found that Aircel offers best service among all the telecom providers in the respective cities.
Operations
As of June 2016, Aircel has a subscriber base of over 88 million and is India's sixth-largest GSM mobile service provider. With presence in 22 circles, Aircel is a market leader in Tamil Nadu and has considerable presence in Odisha, Assam and North-East circles. In 2012, as a part of a major re-organization in its operations, the company scaled down its operations in five telecom circles, namely Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala and Punjab. In April 2015, Aircel relaunched its service in Kerala.
Sponsorship and brand ambassdors
Aircel is the main shirt sponsor of Indian Premier League cricket team Chennai Super Kings and I-League football team Shillong Lajong FC. Aircel is also the principal sponsor for Atlético de Kolkata FC who play in the Indian Super League football competition. It is also a major sponsor of the Chennai Open ATP tennis tournament and the Professional Golf Tour of India. Aircel also sponsors the Save the Tiger campaign for protecting India's tigers. The brand ambassadors of Aircel include the Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Tamil actor Suriya. Aircel also engaged with boxer Mary Kom, Tamil actors Dhanush and Sameera Reddy.
Controversies
Aircel is being investigated by CBI for alleged irregularities in the Maxis takeover. According to CBI, Aircel's previous owner C. Sivasankaran was forced to sell his stake to Maxis by the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran in 2005 in return for Maxis' investment of Rs. 5 billion in a DTH company owned by the Maran family. There were also rumours in September 2012 that the Russian company Sistema was in talks to acquire Aircel which wasn't confirmed by either companies. Aircel was one among seven operators to receive notices from the Department of Telecommunications for not meeting radiation norms in their base tower stations in September 2012. Aircel scaled down services in five circles leading to shutting down of cell sites which left many of its customers without coverage. Users had to travel to areas covered by Aircel in order to obtain a porting code.
See also
- Telecommunications Statistics in India
- Mobile network operators of India
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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