IDEA

Idea Cellular is a wireless telephony company operating in all the 22 telecom circles in India based in Mumbai. It is
the 3rd largest GSM company in India behind Airtel and Vodafone and ahead of state run player BSNL.

In 2000, Tata Cellular was a company providing mobile services in AP. When Birla-AT&T brought Maharashtra and
Gujarat to the table, the merger of these two entities was a reality. Thus Birla-Tata-AT&T, popularly known as
Batata, was born. In 2001, the Batata triumvirate agreed to merge its operations with the Rajeev Chandrasekhar
promoted BPL Communications. The merger could have brought in regions like Mumbai, Maharashtra, Kerala and
Tamil Nadu, which seemed to be a perfect accompaniment to what it already had. This was critical with the bid for
the fourth operator licence round the corner. However, the engagement with BPL was broken. Then Idea set sights on
RPG’s operations in Madhya Pradesh which was successfully acquired, helping Batata have a million subscribers,
and the licence to be the fourth operator in Delhi was clinched. In 2004, Idea (the company had by then been
rechristened) bought over the Escorts group’s Escotel gaining Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (West) and Kerala — and
licences for three more — UP (East), Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. By the end of that year, four million Indians
were on the company’s network. In 2005, AT&T sold its investment in Idea, and the year after Tatas also bid good
bye to pursue an independent telecom business. And Idea was left only with one promoter, the AV Birla group When
the company’s stock listed on the bourses in March 2007, its subscriber base was 13 million with presence in 11
circles. In less than three years, the subscriber numbers have more than quadrupled. The public issue was
oversubscribed 50 times and raised Rs 2,450 crore. In June 2008, Idea Cellular bought out BK Modi’s stake in Spice
Communications for Rs 2,700 crore adding Punjab and Karnataka circles. Modi’s joint venture partner, Telekom
Malaysia, invested Rs 7,000 crore for a 14.99% stake in Idea. Just around then, Idea’s subsidiary, Aditya Birla
Telecom sold a 20% stake to US-based Providence Equity Partners for over Rs 2,000 crore.

The company has its retail outlets under the "Idea n' U" banner. The company has also been the first to offer flexible
tariff plans for prepaid customers. It also offers GPRS services in urban areas.

Idea Cellular won the GSM Association Award for "Best Billing and Customer Care Solution" for 2 consecutive
years.

[edit] Holding
Initially the Birlas, the Tatas and AT&T Wireless each held one-third equity in the company. But following AT&T
Wireless' merger with Cingular Wireless in 2004, Cingular decided to sell its 32.9% stake in Idea. This stake was
bought by both the Tatas and Birlas at 16.45% each.

Tata's foray into the cellular market with its own subsidiary, Tata Indicom, a CDMA-based mobile provider, cropped
differences between the Tatas and the Birlas. This dual holding by the Tatas also became a major reason for the delay
in Idea being granted a license to operate in Mumbai. This was because as per Department of Telecommunications
(DOT) license norms, one promoter could not have more than 10% stake in two companies operating in the same
circle and Tata Indicom was already operating in Mumbai when Idea filed for its licence.

The Birlas thus approached the DOT and sought its intervention, and the Tatas replied by saying that they would exit
Idea but only for a good price. On April 10, 2006, the Aditya Birla Group announced its acquisition of the 48.18%
stake held by the Tatas at Rs. 40.51 a share amounting to Rs. 44.06 billion. While 15% of the 48.14% stake was
acquired by Aditya Birla Nuvo, a company in-charge of the Birlas' new business initiatives, the remaining stake was
acquired by Birla TMT holdings Private Ltd., an AV Birla family owned company. Currently, Aditya Birla Group
holds 49.1% of the total shares of the company. Malaysia based Axiata controls a 14.99% stake in the company.[1]

[edit] Subscriber base

Idea's subscriber base as of November 2009 according to the [2] is as follows

• Maharashtra and Goa - 8,703,670

• Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh - 6,313,183
• Andhra Pradesh - 6,020,386
• Kerala - 5,021,067
• Kolkata - 140,149
• Gujarat - 4,721,945
• Uttar Pradesh (West) & Uttarakhand - 5,203,726
• Delhi - 2,430,274
• Haryana - 1,881,659
• Uttar Pradesh (East) - 3,133,981
• Rajasthan - 2,073,877
• Himachal Pradesh - 212,014
• Mumbai - 1,221,653
• Bihar & Jharkhand - 2,403,949
• Tamil Nadu & Chennai - 58,639
• Odisha - 455,495
• Punjab (Spice) - 3,002,267
• Karnataka (Spice) - 2,181,237
• Rest of Bengal - Newly launched
• Assam - Newly Launched

Totalling to 60,450,178 or 19.25%(Approx.) of the total 366,779,392[2] mobile connections in India.

Market Share of Telecom Industry

Now that we have results of all the Telecom Companies for the quarter ending June-2009, i was curious to see the
latest Customer market share Vs Revenue Market share. Bharti Airtel managed to grab the sweet spot. One good
strategy about Airtel is Grow consolidate and then back to the Growth cycle and the spiral continues.

• Bharti Airtel has 24.3% customer market share and 33.8% revenue market share.
• Vodafone India has 18.8% customer market share and 20.7% revenue market share.
• Idea Cellular has 11.2% subscribers market share and 12.1% revenue market share
• BSNL has subscriber share of 12.7% and mere 10.2% of revenue share
• Reliance Communications is the worst performer with 18.9% customer market share and pathetic 11.5%
revenue market share.

According to Mobile India, BSNL seems to have a turnaround in its operations as the company has added a 81%
more subscribers in July-2009, compared to June-2009.