Aircel: This Article Is About The Mobile Network Operator. For The Comic Book Company, See - For Other Uses, See

This article is about the mobile network operator. For the comic book company, see Aircel Comics.
For other uses, see Air cell.
Aircel
Type
Joint venture
Industry
Telecommunications
Founded
In 1999 Founded ByChinnakannan

Sivasankaran
Headquarters
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Key people
Kaizad Heerjee, CEO

Anup Vikal, CFO
Products
Mobile telephony, wireless broadband services
Revenue
US$
Members
8.01 crore [4] (February 2015)
Parent
Maxis Communications (74%)
Slogan
The joy of a little extra
Website
aircel.com
1.159 billion (2012)
Aircel is an Indian mobile network operator headquartered in Chennai, which offers voice and data
services ranging from postpaid and prepaid plans, 2G and 3G services, broadband wireless access
(BWA), Long Term Evolution (LTE) to value-added services (VAS). In 2006, Aircel was acquired
by Malaysias biggest integrated communications service provider Maxis (Maxis Communication
Berhard) and is a joint venture with Sindya Securities and Investments Pvt Ltd Maxis holds 74%
equity in the company.
Aircel commenced operations in 1999 by Chinnakannan Sivasankaran and today is the leading
mobile operator in Tamil Nadu,Assam, Odisha, North-East India and Chennai. It is India's fifth-largest
GSM mobile service provider, with a subscriber base of over 80.01 million. It has a market share of
8% among wireless operators in the country.[7]
Aircel also obtained permission from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to

provide international long distance (ILD) and national long distance (NLD) telephony services. It also
has the largest service in Tamil Nadu.
Aircel became 5th largest telecom service provider in January 15 after the announcement of telecom
minister that public operatorBSNL lost so many customers and became 6th largest.
Aircel 79.62 million BSNL 78.12 million Tata Docomo 68 million (January 15)
Timeline and early history[

Aircel started as a regional player in Tamil Nadu in 1999.[8] Soon, it became the leading operator in
Tamil Nadu. At one time, Aircel was the fastest growing operator in India. [8]Because of this, it
attracted foreign investments and Malaysian operator Maxis Communications bought a 74 percent
stake in the company in 2005 from its Indian ownerChinnakannan Sivasankaran.
In 2010, the company bought 3G and wireless broadband (BWA) spectrum in 13 and 8 circles
respectively in the 2010 spectrum auction.[8] It paid US$1.44 billion ( 79.1 billion) for the 3G
spectrum and US$0.76 billion ( 49.76 billion) for BWA.[8] Of this, the company raised $0.88 billion
( 48.3 billion) from Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and Barclays. It also took a
$0.44 billion ( 24.2 billion) one-year bridge loan from HSBC, Punjab National Bank and Axis Bank.
[8]
The company, as of November 2012, has around 5 million 3G customers.Aircel launched its 4G
LTE the first quarter of 2015 in 5 Circles out of 8 circles where it has license to provide 4G LTE on
2300 MHz band but it is still available to Business users and not for personal users.
AIRCEL also bagged 15 MHz spectrum on 1800 MHz band to provide future use (4G on 1800 MHz )
for TamilNadu .
Core business
3G
On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Aircel paid 65,000 million for spectrum
in 13 circles: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka,Kolkata, Madhya
Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, North East, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (East)
& Uttarakhand and West Bengal.[10]
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. [11]
4G
On 11 June 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auction in India ended. Aircel
paid 34380 million for spectrum in eight circles: Andhra Pradesh, Assam,Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir,
North East, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.[12] It also has 3G spectrum in all these circles.
Aircel has 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.[13]
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 expand to a few other business critical circles in the first stage. On 16
July 2014, it launched 4G services in four circles Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Odisha
Aircel 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 WiMAX.
Other business initiatives

Aircel on 27 May 2011 launched the Apple iPhone 4 apart from Bharti Airtel, which is one of the most
popular smartphones in the contemporary world
Telecom operator Aircel announced that its partnership with Wikimedia Foundation to offer
free mobile Wikipedia access to its customers. The alliance is aimed at making knowledge available
on Wikipedia accessible to all Aircel customers in both rural and urban areas for free. This initiative is
a part of the foundations Wikipedia Zero Programme to reach mobile internet users around the
World But from 2 March 2015, subscribers of Aircel no longer can access Wikipedia Zero.
Cost cutting
As a part of a major re-organization in its operations, the company decided to halt operations in five
telecom circles, namely Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala andPunjabIt also decided to cut
600 jobs. This is part of a series of steps to cut costs and thereby make the company more efficient
in the highly competitive Indian telecom market. As of November 2012, Aircel has closed down
dealerships in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, UP west and Gujarat. Only online recharge facility is
available in these circles. Aircel still continues its operations in Rajasthan and Punjab as of
November 2012. It has more than 2.6 million customers in Rajasthan circle and is adding about
140,000 customers per month in this circle. As per the January 2015 subscription data published by
TRAI, Aircel had a subscriber base stood at 79 million.
Sponsorships and brand ambassadors

Aircel is one of the sponsors of the Indian Premier League cricket team Chennai Super Kings and ILeague side Shillong Lajong FC. It is also the major sponsors for the Chennai Open (the
only ATP tennis tournament in India) and the Professional Golf Tour of India. Aircel also spearheads
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 is also engaging with Mary Kom, the female boxer,Dhanush,
another Tamil actor and Sameera Reddy, a Bollywood actress for their Celebrity Chat series
It was announced on 22 Oct 2014 that Aircel will be the principal sponsor for Atltico de Kolkata
FC of the Indian Super League.
Share-holders
Maxis, Aircel's majority stake holder at that time, raised 11.2 billion (USD 3.36 billion) for its
shareholders (UTSB), making it the largest IPO in Malaysia, Southeast Asia and Latin
America.Maxis has 74% stake and the remaining 26% is owned by Apollo Hospitals.
Controversies and acquisition rumours

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. As a result, Maxis did a quid pro quo 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. However, that hasn't been confirmed by either of the companies. Sistema is the
parent company of MTS, which is a CDMA operator in India.
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
As a part of its cost cutting practices, Aircel started scaling down services in five circles. However,
Aircel also shut down many 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.

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This article is about the mobile network operator. For the comic book company, see Aircel Comics.

For other uses, see Air cell.

In 1999 Founded ByChinnakannan

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Kaizad Heerjee, CEO

Mobile telephony, wireless broadband services

8.01 crore [4] (February 2015)

Maxis Communications (74%)

The joy of a little extra

1.159 billion (2012)

Aircel also obtained permission from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to

Timeline and early history[

Aircel Business Solutions

Other business initiatives

Sponsorships and brand ambassadors

Controversies and acquisition rumours

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