Aircel Ltd. stylised as AIRCEL , was an Indian mobile network operator headquartered in Mumbai that offered voice and 2G, 3G and 4G data services. Maxis Communications held a 74% stake and Sindya Securities and Investments held the remaining 26%.
History
Aircel was founded by Chinnakannan Sivasankaran from Kovilur village,
Cheyyar taluk,
Tiruvannamalai district 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% stock in the company from Sivasankaran in 2005. The remaining 26% stock 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
, namely
Madhya Pradesh, Punjab,
Haryana,
Rajasthan and
Gujarat.
On 14 September 2016, Reliance Communications and Aircel announced the merger of their mobile network operations. Following the merger, the joint entity was expected to become India's fourth largest telecom operator in term of consumer base and revenues.
A year later, however, both the companies called off the deal citing regulatory and legal issues.
Aircel had 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.
Services
3G
On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Aircel paid 65 billion for spectrum in 13 circles:
Andhra Pradesh,
Assam,
Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir,
Karnataka,
Kerala,
Kolkata,
Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh,
Northeast India,
Odisha, Punjab,
Tamil Nadu,
Uttar Pradesh and
West Bengal.
It paid US$1.44 billion ( 79.1 billion) for the 3G spectrum.
The company, had about 5 million 3G customers. 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 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, sold 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-MAX.
Network connectivity
Aircel offered poor network coverage in Delhi & NCR circle.
It used radio link time out technology without which the call drop rates will be significantly higher and many customers reported this.
In a 2015 survey conducted by
Mint and Insta Vaani in
New Delhi,
Mumbai,
Bangalore,
Chennai,
Hyderabad,
Ahmedabad and
Kolkata, it was found that Aircel offered the best service among all the telecom providers in the respective cities.
Operations
, Aircel had a subscriber base of over 84.93 million and was India's sixth-largest
GSM mobile service provider.
With presence in 22 circles, Aircel was a market leader in
Tamil Nadu and had considerable presence in
Odisha,
Assam and
North-East India 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.
Now Aircel is under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process From 12 March 2018.
Sponsorship and brand ambassadors
Aircel was the main shirt sponsor of Indian Premier League
cricket team Chennai Super Kings and
I-League football team Shillong Lajong FC. Aircel was also the principal sponsor for Atlético de Kolkata FC who play in the Indian Super League football competition. It was also a major sponsor of the
Chennai Open ATP tennis tournament and the Professional Golf Tour of India. Aircel also sponsored the Save the
Tiger campaign for protecting India's tigers. The
of Aircel included the Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and
Tamil cinema actor Suriya. Aircel also engaged with boxer
Mary Kom,
Tamil cinema 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.
On 28 February 2018 Aircel filed for bankruptcy at NCLT.
See also
-
Mobile network operators of India
External links
