Aircel
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| Type | Joint Venture |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Key people |
Sandip Das, CEO |
| Products | Mobile telephony, Wireless broadband services |
| Parent | Maxis Communications (74%)[1] |
| Website | aircel.com |
Aircel group is an Indian mobile network operator headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, that provides wireless voice, messaging and data services in India. It is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Sindya Securities & Investments Private Limited, whose current shareholders are the Reddy family of Apollo Hospitals Group of India, with Maxis Communications holding a majority stake of 74%.[citation needed] Aircel commenced operations in 1999 and today the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu, Assam, North- East and Chennai.
It is India’s fifth largest GSM mobile service provider & seventh largest mobile service provider (both GSM and CDMA) with a subscriber base of over 51.83 million, as of January 31, 2011.[citation needed] It has a market share of 6.72% among the GSM operators in the country.[citation needed]
Additionally, Aircel has also obtained permission from 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.
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[edit] 3G & BWA
On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Aircel paid 
6499.46 crores for spectrum in 13 circles - the least cost per circle compared to other operators. The circles it will provide 3G in are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, North East, Orissa , Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (East) & Uttarakhand and West Bengal.[2]
On 11 June 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auction in India ended. Aircel paid 3438.01 crores for spectrum in 8 circles, the second highest wins overall - after Reliance Communications. The circles it has won spectrum are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, North East, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.[3] It also has 3G spectrum in all these circles.
[edit] 3G Coverage
Aircel’s 3G service is currently available in the following cities/towns in 13 telecom circles:
| Telecom Circle | State/Region | No. of Towns | Cities/Towns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | Andhra Pradesh | 12 | Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Vizag, Tirupathi, Kurnool, Nellore, Kakinada, Rajahmundry, Guntur, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Warangal |
| Assam | Assam | 1 | Guwahati, Tinsukia |
| Bihar | Bihar | 1 | Patna |
| Jharkhand | 0 | ||
| Jammu & Kashmir | Jammu & Kashmir | 1 | Srinagar |
| Kanpur† | Kanpur† | N/A | N/A |
| Karnataka | Karnataka | 1 | Bangalore |
| Kerala | Kerala | 10 | Kochi/Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram, Malappuram, Kannur, Thrissur Alappuzha,kollam and 4 other towns |
| Kolkata† | Kolkata† | N/A | N/A |
| North East | Arunachal Pradesh | 0 | |
| Meghalaya | 1 | Shillong | |
| Manipur | 0 | ||
| Mizoram | 0 | ||
| Nagaland | 0 | ||
| Tripura | 0 | ||
| Orissa | Orissa | 1 | Bhubaneswar |
| Tamil Nadu | Tamil Nadu | 2 | Chennai, Coimbatore |
| Uttar Pradesh (East) | Eastern Uttar Pradesh | 4 | Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi |
†Kanpur and Kolkata are metro circle and are not included in Uttar Pradesh (East) and West Bengal circle, even though they are part of Uttar Pradesh (East) and West Bengal state.
[edit] Aircel Business Solutions
Aircel Business Solutions (ABS), part of Aircel, is an ISO 9000 certified company. ABS is a registered member of WiMAX forum – both in the Indian and International Chapters. ABS’ product range includes enterprise solutions such as Multiprotocol Label Switching Virtual Private Networks (MPLS VPNs), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Managed Video Services on wireless platform including WiMAX.
[edit] Sponsorships
Aircel is one of the sponsors of the Indian Premier League Cricket Team Chennai Super Kings. It is also the major sponsors for Chennai Open (the only ATP tennis tournament in India), and Professional Golf Tour of India.
[edit]
Maxis, Aircel's majority stake holder at that time, raised 11.2 billions (USD 3.36 billions) for its shareholders (UTSB), making it the largest IPO in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, Tamil Nadu.
[edit] Social Presence
Aircel placed an actual dinghy lifeboat to a downtown billboard. A rope with a sign reading, “In case of emergency, cut rope”, held up the branded raft. July 15, 2009 the monsoon arrived with flooded streets and so did Aircel customer service. The dinghy was cut down and pedestrians were safely transported. What Aircel calls “Corporate Social Responsibility – A Solution”. The company was able to generate positive publicity and show consumers that they care.
Beautification of Anna Flyover has been taken up Aircel for a period of three years, the contract has been awarded by TNRIDC and executed by Chennai based outdoor advertising agency Abra Media Networks. This project boasts of first of its kind lighting solution for the entire stretch of the bridge and many other landscapes to enhance the look of the whole bridge. As far as the utility is concerned, they are building a dedicated toilet for the police guarding the Anna Flyover and the US Embassy. Once this flyover is beautified, Aircel plans to maintain it for 3 years. Aircel tied up with Tamil Nadu Public Works Department for beautification and maintaining of Gandhi Mandpam,Guindy in opposite of Anna University.
[edit] Awards & Recognition
Aircel has won many awards for its services. Aircel was honored at the World Brand Congress 2009 with three awards, Brand Leadership in Telecom, Marketing Campaign & Marketing Professional of the Year[citation needed]. Aircel was honored by CMAI INFOCOM National Telecom Award 2009 for, ‘Excellence in Marketing of New Telecom Service’. Aircel had been selected as the best regional operator in 2008 by Tele.net.[citation needed] Aircel was rated as the top mid-size utility company in Business World’s ‘List of Best Mid-Size Companies’ in 2007.[citation needed] Aircel got the highest rating for overall customer satisfaction and network quality in 2006 by Voice and Data.[citation needed]
[edit] Apple iPhone 4 Launch
Aircel launched the Apple iPhone 4 apart from Bharti Airtel on 27th May, 2011, which is one of the most popular smartphone in the contemporary world. Details are here :- http://site2preview.com/aircel2010_new/ver1/iphone4/i-phone-LP.html
Aircel is famous for innovative Pocket Internet cards for Free GPRS service for 1day/3days/7days/30days. Aircel become first to introduce Online service to subscribe and manage Dialer tunes. It is first in country to introduce SMS bank/Phone Book/Reminder/Talking SMS.
[edit] Other Information
[edit] Network Codes
- 40417 -West Bengal
- 40425 -Bihar
- 40428 -Orissa
- 40429 -Assam
- 40433 -North East
- 40435 -Himachal Pradesh
- 40437 -Jammu&Kashmir
- 40442 -Tamil Nadu
- 40441 -Chennai
- 40491 -Kolkata
- 405811 -Kanpur
- 405810-Uttar Pradesh(East)
- 405811-Uttar Pradesh(West)
- 405812-Punjab
[edit] Message Centre Numbers
- Tamil Nadu - +919842201155
- Punjab - +919803099060
- Mtn - +234803000000
- Airtel- +2348020000009
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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