me_saket 73 Report post Posted May 25, 2009 (edited) Techtree.com With the launch of its GSM mobile services in 130 towns across Tamil Nadu, IDEA Cellular has now entered the state. Idea's 2.75G EDGE enabled network will cover Chennai and over 500 towns and villages by the end of current financial year. Idea Cellular has launched its services in most of the main towns of Tamil Nadu including Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem, Tirupur, Erode and Vellore and plans to to enter Chennai soon. Idea is also rolling out special Value Added Services for subscribers which will include - Idea Vanavil, Tamil Ullagam, Thirukural Alerts on SMS, Rahu Kalam, background music, and ring back tunes. 'Say Idea' -- an exclusive product offering wide range of services like dialer tones, star special, music directors' special, song and dance, latest movies, jokes and comedy special and devotional will also be introduced in Tamil Nadu. . MY opinion This is good move by idea, as chennai is too saturated for teledensity of 102%. Idea opted to launch service in other major town in TN. soon enter villages also, when most of subsciber will added. What an IDEA Sir'ji Edited June 17, 2009 by saket_kewate Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pasumark 51 Report post Posted May 25, 2009 WELCOME Idea to TamilNadu Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted June 17, 2009 IDEA to roll out GSM service in Chennai soon Economic Times 16 Jun 2009, 2059 hrs IST, PTI CHENNAI: Telecom operator IDEA Cellular, part of the Aditya Birla Group, would soon roll out its GSM service in the metro, a company official said here on Tuesday. "It (GSM service) should be rolled out in Chennai very soon," IDEA Cellular Chief Corporate Affairs Office Rajat Mukarji told reporters. The company has already launched its service in Coimbatore, Madurai and other cities apart from the metro, he said. To a query, he said they have received a 'good' response from the cities in Tamil Nadu where the services has been launched. However he declined to specify the number of mobile phone connections they had provided. The company has operations in four southern states. In Karnataka it acquired telecom operator Spice while it has rolled out services in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, he said. He said the Southern region ranked 'fourth' in the company's overall subscriber base. "Out of the 40 million customers (in the country), 25 per cent is from Southern region", he said. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted July 10, 2009 Idea expands footprint in the South Source CHENNAI: Idea Cellular, a leading telecom operator, has announced the launch of its GSM mobile services here on Thursday. With this the mobile network covers all the service areas in the South. The network will now cover entire Chennai metro in addition to its expanding network coverage in the rest of Tamil Nadu. Addressing presspersons Himanshu Kapania, Director-Operations, said the telecom operator covered 90 per cent of the telephony potential of the country and the company was now the third largest private GSM player with over 47 million subscribers across 18 telecom circles. The company was planning to set up a network of 1,700 cell sites across Tamil Nadu and Chennai, covering 600 towns by the end of March 2010. According to Pradeep Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, the service network would be expanded to over 25,000 retail outlets and 60 Idea showrooms in Tamil Nadu. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted July 10, 2009 Idea Cellular to invest Rs.1,000 crore in Tamil Nadu Source Telecom major Idea Cellular will invest Rs.1,000 crore ($205 million) over the next three years in Tamil Nadu to expand its network, a top company official said Thursday. 'The company will invest Rs.1,000 crore to expand its cell sites to 2,400 by 2010 and presence to 1,200 towns in the state. By 2011 the number of cell sites will be 4,000 and the presence will be in 3,300 towns,' Himanshu Kapania, director (operations) of Idea, told reporters while launching the company's services here Thursday. Idea, which launched services in Tamil Nadu last month, now has has 1,700 cell sites in 600 towns in the state and has enrolled over 100,000 subscribers so far. Citing Idea's successful penetration into the telecom market in the state, Kapania said: 'It only shows that subscribers are not satisfied with the existing service providers. The call drop numbers are huge. We hope to garner subscribers with our service quality.' Idea will also set up a 2,086-km optical fibre network. He added that 12 million of its total 43 million subscribers are in Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu the company will open 60 outlets to roll out its services. Idea will will invest around Rs.7,500 crore this year to expand its services into new areas, Kapania added. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ravi_patent 28 Report post Posted July 10, 2009 (edited) ^ though competition is good ,does idea have USP like docomo is a big question.. this link(http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/07/10/stories/2009071051931700.htm) says that idea " As part of the inaugural offer, the company has introduced multiple tariff plans ranging from special tariff vouchers to variable talk time and validity offerings, based on the consumption patterns of the consumer". i believe that they were among the late entrants into kerala but still managed to gain 1st place ..can they pull of here ? Edited July 10, 2009 by ravi_patent Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
me_saket 73 Report post Posted July 10, 2009 i believe that they were among the late entrants into kerala but still managed to gain 1st place ..can they pull of here ? NO, idea acquired operation of ESCOTEL mobile in 2004( may be in different year) Before that escotel was already a number one company i kerala. So idea just maintains it's number one postion in kerala. Idea actually brought 2 circle operation from escotel, kerala and UP W Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ravi_patent 28 Report post Posted July 13, 2009 (edited) ^ thanks for the update saket, however thats better than a.p where IDEA couldnt maintain its leadership despite the being the first to launch sevices Edited July 13, 2009 by ravi_patent Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
me_saket 73 Report post Posted July 13, 2009 ^thanks for the update saket, however thats better than a.p where IDEA couldnt maintain its leadership despite the being the first to launch sevices yes AIRTEL number one in AP, rcom number 2 idea number 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted July 15, 2009 Idea Cellular: Subscribers call in Source With 1.6 million net additions to its subscriber base in June compared with 1.3 million in May, Idea Cellular seems to be getting its act together. The telco has done well to hook users in the metros; in Delhi it added subscribers after losing them for two months while in Mumbai, the number of net additions nearly trebled. That’s creditable because wireless penetration in urban markets is more than 85 per cent. Idea also appears to be doing well in other states where it recently rolled out services such as Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Bihar. Whether the strong subscriber base translates into better operating metrics, remains to be seen. The Aditya Birla group company had turned in a strong set of numbers in the March 2009 quarter, despite Reliance Communications having launched its GSM service across 14 circles offering free minutes. The drop in the minutes of usage (mou), which fell just over 3 per cent to 402 minutes, was relatively strong while the fall in the average revenue per user (arpu), at 4.5 per cent sequentially to Rs to Rs 254, wasn’t bad either. Losses in the Mumbai and Bihar circles were lower too and going ahead, Idea’s operating leverage in the older circles should improve and ad spends should taper off. However, although the company has strong cash balances of nearly Rs 6,000 crore, it plans to use most of this for capital expenditure and may just need to borrow to bid for 3G licences. In the current year, Idea is expected to turn in revenues of close to Rs 13,500 crore and although cost pressures will continue as it steps up operations, it should post an operating margin of over 26 per cent. That could result in a net profit in the region Rs 825 crore.The stock rose 7 per cent on Tuesday to close at Rs 70; at these levels, the stock trades at an EV/EBITDA ( enterprise value/earnings before interest, tax and depreciation) multiple for 2009-10 of over 8 times which is a very slight discount to market leader Bharti Airtel. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted July 15, 2009 I called idea TN CC 90920 12345, they said idea will be launched within 3 - 4 weeks in my town[nagercoil] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
me_saket 73 Report post Posted July 16, 2009 I called idea TN CC 90920 12345, they said idea will be launched within 3 - 4 weeks in my town[nagercoil] still not reached to interior of TN. what an idea?? only metro's Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KanagaDeepan 1,084 Report post Posted July 21, 2009 Walk when you talk, is a nice idea... But launching services only in (already house-full) cities is "WHAT A (BLUNDER) IDEA SIR ji???" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted July 21, 2009 Can someone get me the "walk when u talk" theme music.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted July 29, 2009 Idea plans to go pan-India by Dec 09 Source Aditya Birla Group’s GSM mobile service provider company Idea Cellular Limited has announced that it has received licenses to set up its operations in states of West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir thus covering whole of the country. With its operations that began in 1997 with two circles, today the company has 17 circles and plans to go pan India by the end of this calendar year. It also announced its plans to concentrate on driving penetration in rural areas in the Maharashtra and Goa circle. “We plan to achieve this through our various initiatives like vans that will go to rural areas for promotions, there will be mobile handsets at subsidised rates on offer and the like to achieve our goal,”P Laxminarayana, chief operating officer, Maharashtra and Goa, Idea Cellular, told Business Standard . To take a step in that direction, Idea recently introduced new tariff plans and value added services designed for rural consumers like tips on farming and agriculture. It also apparently added over 1,300 cell sites in 12 months to achieve network coverage of 6,110 cell sites increasing its penetration to 78% from 65% in the previous year in Maharashtra and Goa. The company aims to have over 1,00,000 outlets in the state, by March 2010 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
me_saket 73 Report post Posted July 29, 2009 hope idea's network will be 3G ready, so they can grab opportunity if they get license. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dkaile 1,051 Report post Posted July 29, 2009 Idea's (Escotel) Network is quite thakela here in West UP. I have been a subscriber since last 5 years... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
