Aircel is a mobile phone service provider in India.

It offers
both prepaidand postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India.
Aircel is a joint venture between Maxis
Communications of Malaysia and Apollo Hospital Enterprise Ltd of India.
UTSB has a 74% stake in Aircel and the remaining 26% is with Apollo
Hospitals. It is India’s Seventh largest GSM mobile service provider with a
subscriber base of over 51.83 million, as of January 31,2011. It has a market
share of 6.72% among the GSM operators in the country. As on date, Aircel
is present in all 23 telecom circles (including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar
& Jharkhand, Chennai, Delhi & NCR, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai,
North East, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Rest of Maharashtra & Goa, Rest of
Tamil Nadu, Rest of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West) as
per the company plans to become a pan-India operator by 2010. 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. 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:
This is an incomplete list, which may never be able
to satisfy particular standards for completeness.
You can help by expanding it with reliably
sourced entries.
Telecom State/Regio No. of
Cities/Towns
Circle n Towns

Andhra Andhra
1 Hyderabad
Pradesh Pradesh

Assam Assam 1 Guwahati

Bihar 1 Patna
Bihar
Jharkhand 0

Jammu
Jammu &
& 1 Srinagar
Kashmir
Kashmir

Karnatak
Karnataka 1 Bangalore
a

Kochi/Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapura

Kerala Kerala 10
m and 6 other towns

Kolkata† Kolkata† N/A N/A

 Arunachal
0
Pradesh

Meghalaya 1 Shillong

Manipur 0
North
East
Mizoram 0

Nagaland 0

Tripura 0

Orissa Orissa 1 Bhubaneswar

Tamil
Tamil Nadu 1 Chennai
Nadu

Uttar
Eastern Utta
Pradesh 1 Lucknow
r Pradesh
(East)

†Kolkata is a metro circle and is not included in West Bengal circle,

even though it is a part of 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 asMultiprotocol Label
Switching Virtual Private Networks (MPLS
VPNs), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and
Managed Video Services on wireless platform
including WiMAX.
http://www.aircelbusinesssolutions.com
[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]Share holders

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.
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. 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. Aircel was rated as the top mid-size utility
company inBusiness World’s ‘List of Best Mid-Size
Companies’ in 2007. Aircel got the highest rating for
overall customer satisfaction and network quality in
2006 by Voice and Data.
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.
Aircel expAircel is in an expansion overdrive. Can it emerge as a pan
India mobile service company of substance?
For the last few weeks, India’s cricket captain and youth icon Mahendra
Singh Dhoni has been extolling the virtues of Aircel mobile services on
television, billboards and newspapers across the country. If media
planners are to be believed, in the last few weeks, ever since it
launched in Delhi, the mobile services company has forked out over Rs
35 crore to newspapers, magazines and television channels to promote
its products.
The company says that Dhoni’s brand image fits in well with what Aircel
stands for simplicity and the ‘boy next door’ image which underlines
consumer trust. The company feels there is no better way to connect
with customers in India than cricket. It has sponsored the Chennai
Super Kings team in the Indian Premier League and has now taken on
board Dhoni as the brand ambassador.
Dhoni according to the company was chosen very carefully. Because he
is like a common user of mobile services and reflects unpretentious
values in many ways, besides being the best symbol of modern
emerging India says, the CEO of Maxis Communications of Malaysia,
which owns 74 per cent of Aircel.
At the moment, the trick seems to be working. Media planners agree
that the advertising blitz with Dhoni has worked. The recall value of the
advertising to its intended users has gone up significantly, despite the
fact that competitors like Vodafone and Airtel have spend nearly equal
amounts on their brand with the IPL season in full swing now.
But will Dhoni be able to catapult Aircel into a pan-India mobile service
company of substance? After all, in 10 years of its launch, Aircel has
remained a relatively small player which depends for over 57 per cent of
its subscribers on just one state Tamil Nadu (including Chennai). With
18 million subscribers and a 6.41 per cent share (without including
Reliance Communication) of the GSM mobile market, it is way behind
big players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL and Idea Cellular in the
pecking order.
Aircel, on its part, is on overdrive these days. The company in the last
few weeks has rolled out services in Delhi and Mumbai as well as Uttar
Pradesh. It plans to roll out in the whole of Maharashtra soon and hopes
to hit the 30-million subscriber mark by the end of the year. By that time,
Aircel will be present in 17 circles across the country. And it means
serious business. It has committed almost $2 billion over the next 18
months to augment its network capacity. Its target is double-digit market
share in the next one or two years.
Maxis has invested in India and Indonesia because it estimates that in
the next five years, over half a billion phone connections will be added
in these two geographies.
But how will Aircel catch up with far bigger rivals in India? Its market
share is a quarter of market leader Bharti Airtel (32.5 per cent) and half
of its nearest rival, Idea Cellular (14.92 per cent). Worse, in key markets
like Delhi and Mumbai, where it recently launched, it will be the sixth or
seventh mobile service operator. At least one of these markets, Delhi, is
known to be saturated mobile penetration has hit 100 per cent. Aircel
does not have a unique selling proposition.
Aircel, of course, is aware of some of the challenges. But it does not
believe it doesn’t have a USP. Their fresh networks, simplified tariff
plans, refreshing value additions and customer services are a powerful
package in a market suffering from a lot of sameness.
AIRCEL INNOVATIVE MARKETING CAMPAIGN - August 18th, 2009
Aircel was launched in select circles in Maharashtra early this month; and the launch was
accompanied by a variety of innovations and attractive outdoor promotions.

Be it the ‘Just arrived’ boxes at the airport, the projection of the logo on the landmark
Gateway of India or the IPL Scoreboard put up at the Mahim Causeway, Aircel has managed to
create an unbeatable buzz.

Interestingly, a lot of its innovations are useful. For instance, the IPL scoreboard enabled
commuters at the busy Mahim Causeway to keep track of the latest scores.

Recently, Aircel put up an inflated raft at Milan Subway in Mumbai, which sees a lot of flooding
every year. The message simply said, "In case of emergency, cut rope".

The raft came in handy on July 13 and 14, when heavy rains lashed the city. People stranded
at the subway used the raft to move around and men in Aircel branded T-shirts were also
available to help commuters. The idea was appreciated so much that Aircel will now take it to
Delhi and Kolkata as well.

The raft idea was conceptualised and executed by Primesite, Mudra group's OOH division, for
Aircel. Aneil 'Andee' Deepak, senior vice-president, Primesite says, "The trigger for this idea
was the news that Mumbai will witness the highest tides in the last 50 years and the Met
Department's subsequent admission that Mumbai will flood and that they can do nothing about
it, given the city's infrastructure. Aircel relishes its role as a solution provider, rather than a
mute bystander. We decided to do something about it, and hence, the idea."

Andee attributes Aircel's innovative approach throughout to the fact that the brand is, quite
literally, the 12th man to enter the telecom market. "If the 12th man has to make it to the
team, then he has to do things that'll get people talking and innovation was the only way."

He shares that ideas will drive Aircel in OOH. The agency has even set up an 'Innovations
Bank' for Aircel, where clutter-breaking ideas are being conceived and planned consistently.

For instance, Aircel branded airport placards had names of celebrities, such as Tom Cruise,
which immediately grabbed people's attention. Directional signages were also put up, as was a
tree-like structure, with multiple Aircel branded boxes.

Andee adds, "I've never seen as many innovations on any other brand on such a consistent
basis. The circle teams at Aircel have been pushing us to raise the bar on innovations. We are
trying to create 'opportunities to chat' and people are actually talking about them, so it's been
quite a success."

For the record, the Aircel group is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of
Malaysia and Apollo Hospital Enterprise of India -- Maxis holds a majority stake of 74 per cent.

Aircel commenced operations in 1999 and has gained a foothold in 18 circles: Chennai, Tamil
Nadu, Assam, North East, Orissa, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal,
Kolkata, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, UP (West), UP (East), Maharashtra and
Goa and Mumbai. It has recently gained an allocation of additional spectrum by the
Department of Telecom for 13 new circles across India.

The company has over 20 million customers in the country.

Aircel was launched in select circles in Maharashtra early this month; and the launch was
accompanied by a variety of innovations and attractive outdoor promotions.

Be it the ‘Just arrived’ boxes at the airport, the projection of the logo on the landmark Gateway of
India or the IPL Scoreboard put up at the Mahim Causeway, Aircel has managed to create an
unbeatable buzz.

Interestingly, a lot of its innovations are useful. For instance, the IPL scoreboard enabled
commuters at the busy Mahim Causeway to keep track of the latest scores.

Recently, Aircel put up an inflated raft at Milan Subway in Mumbai, which sees a lot of flooding
every year. The message simply said, "In case of emergency, cut rope".

The raft came in handy on July 13 and 14, when heavy rains lashed the city. People stranded at the
subway used the raft to move were also available to help commuters. The idea was appreciated so
much that Aircel will now take it to Delhi and Kolkata as well.

The raft idea was conceptualised and executed by Primesite, Mudra group's OOH division, for
Aircel. Aneil 'Andee' Deepak, senior vice-president, Primesite says, "The trigger for this idea was
the news that Mumbai will witness the highest tides in the last 50 years and the Met Department's
subsequent admission that Mumbai will flood and that they can do nothing about it, given the
city's infrastructure. Aircel relishes its role as a solution provider, rather than a mute bystander.
We decided to do something about it, and hence, the idea."
Andee attributes Aircel's innovative approach throughout to the fact that the brand is, quite
literally, the 12th man to enter the telecom market. "If the 12th man has to make it to the team,
then he has to do things that'll get people talking and innovation was the only way."
around and men in Aircel branded T-shirts