mobile operators share information

India has become one of the fastest-growing mobile markets in the world. The mobile services were commercially launched in August 1995 in India. In the initial 5-6 years the average monthly subscribers additions were around 0.05 to 0.1 million only and the total mobile subscribers base in December 2002 stood at 10.5 millions. However, after the number of proactive initiatives taken by regulator and licensor, the monthly mobile subscriber additions increased to around 2 million per month in the year 2003-04 and 2004-05. Although mobile telephones followed the New Telecom Policy 1994, growth was tardy in the early years because of the high price of hand sets as well as the high tariff structure of mobile telephones. The New Telecom Policy in 1999, the industry heralded several pro consumer initiatives. Mobile subscriber additions started picking up. The number of mobile phones added throughout the country in 2003 was 16 million, followed by 22 million in 2004, 32 million in 2005 and 65 million in 2006. The only country with more mobile phones than India with 246 million mobile phones is China – 408 million. India has opted for the use of both the GSM (global system for mobile communications) and CDMA (code-division multiple access) technologies in the mobile sector. In addition to landline and mobile phones, some of the companies also provide the WLL service. The mobile tariffs in India have also become lowest in the world. A new mobile connection can be activated with a monthly commitment of US$0.15 only. In 2005 alone 32 million handsets were sold in India. The data reveals the real potential for growth of the Indian mobile market. In March 2008 the total GSM and CDMA mobile subscriber base in the country was 375 million, which represented a nearly 50% growth when compared with previous year. In April 2008 the Indian Department of Telecom (DoT) has directed all mobile phone service users to disconnect the usage of unbranded Chinese mobile phones that do not have International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, because they pose a serious security risk to the country. Mobile network operators therefore planned to suspend the usage of around 30 million mobile phones (about 8 % of all mobiles in the country) by April 30. Present Scenerio In the fixed line arena, BSNL and MTNL are the incumbents in their respective areas of operation and continue to enjoy the dominant service provider status in the domain of fixed line services. For example BSNL controls 79% of fixed line share in the country. On the other hand, in the mobile telephony space, Airtel controls 21.4% subscriber base followed by Reliance with 20.3%, BSNL with 18.6%, Vodafone with 14.7% subscriber base (as per June 2005 data). Following list shows the GSM subscriber figure till Jan 2009 1) Bharti Airtel 88382758 33.04% 2) Vodafone Essar 63340024 23.68% 3) BSNL 42673357 15.95% 4) IDEA 40016153 14.96% 5) Aircel 16761397 6.27% 6) Reliance Telecom 10353841 3.87% 7) MTNL 4003807 1.50% 8) BPL 2007303 0.75% All India 267538640 Next Generation Networks In the Next Generation Networks, multiple access networks can connect customers to a core network based on IP technology. These access networks include fibre optics or coaxial cable networks connected to fixed locations or customers connected through wi-fi as well as to 3G networks connected to mobile users. As a result, in the future, it would be impossible to identify whether the next generation network is a fixed or mobile network and the wireless access broadband would be used both for fixed and mobile services. It would then be futile to differentiate between fixed and mobile networks – both fixed and mobile users will access services through a single core network. Indian telecom networks are not so intensive as developed country’s telecom networks and India's teledensity is low only in rural areas. 670,000 route kilometers (419,000 miles) of optical fibres has been laid in India by the major operators, even in remote areas and the process continues. BSNL alone, has laid optical fibre to 30,000 Telephone Exchanges out of their 36 Exchanges. Keeping in mind the viability of providing services in rural areas, an attractive solution appears to be one which offers multiple service facility at low costs. A rural network based on the extensive optical fibre network, using Internet Protocol and offering a variety of services and the availability of open platforms for service development, viz. the Next Generation Network, appears to be an attractive proposition. Fibre network can be easily converted to Next Generation network and then used for delivering multiple services at cheap cost.
	AIRTEL
Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures LTD (BTVL) is India's largest cellular service provider with more than 92 million subscribers as of February 2009. It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its TELECOM services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. The company also provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. It also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBU’s) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services & Enterprise Services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles while the Airtel Telemedia Services business offers broadband & telephone services in 95 cities and has recently launched India's best Direct-to-Home (DTH) service, Airtel digital TV. The company provides end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers through its nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station. Globally, Bharti Airtel is the 3rd largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. In India, the company has a 24.6% share of the wireless services market, followed by 17.7% for Reliance Communications and 17.4% for Vodafone Essar. In its monthly press release, following statistics have been presented for end of April 2007.  Bharti Airtel added the highest ever net addition of 5.3 million customers in a single quarter (Q4-FY0607) and also the highest ever net addition of 18 million total subscribers in 2006-07.  The company will invest up to $3.5 billion this fiscal (07-08) in network expansion.  It has an installed base of 40,000 cellsites and 59% population coverage.  After the proposed network expansion, an additional 30,000 towers will result in the company achieving 70% population coverage.  Bharti has over 39 million users as on March 31, 2007.  It has set a target of 125 million subscribers by 2010.  Prepaid customers account for 88.5% of Bharti’s total subscriber base, an increase from 82.7% a year ago.  ARPU has dropped to Rs 406.  Non-voice revenues, (SMS, voice mail, call management, hello tunes and Airtel Live) constituted 10% of total revenues during Q4, lower than 10.7% in the Q4 of the previous year.  Blended monthly minutes of usage per customer in Q4 was at 475 minutes.  Has completed 100% verification of its subscribers and in the process disconnected three lakh (300,000) subscribers.  Bharti Airtel’s is now connecting India to Europe under its Europe India gateway [EIG]project. The company is building 15,000 km 3.84 Terrabit OFC sub-marine cable system connecting Europe [London] to India via the Middle East. The project is expected to cost $700 million, which is to be completed by Q2-2010. Alcatel Lucent and Tyco are the telecom vendors for the project. The Airtel subscriber base according to TRAI - Telecom Regulatory Authority of India as of February 2009[7] was:  Kolkata - 2,456,896  Maharashtra - 5,690,609  Gujarat - 3,981,660  Andhra Pradesh - 8,892,353  Karnataka - 9,820,812  Tamil Nadu - 6,003,040  Kerala - 2,169,633  Punjab - 3,754,405  Haryana - 1,248,906  Uttar Pradesh (West) - 2,256,862  Uttar Pradesh (East) - 5,722,386  Rajasthan - 6,704,274  Madhya Pradesh - 4,470,561  West Bengal & Andaman and Nicobar - 3,501,560  Himachal Pradesh - 951,121  Bihar - 7,152,245  Orissa - 2,811,453  Assam - 1,448,389  North Eastern States - 890,054  Jammu & Kashmir - 1,590,935 The total is 91,114,971 or 24.2% of the total 375,742,592 GSM + CDMA mobile connections in India till February 2009; and presently the Number 1 operator in India. In 2009 Airtel also launched in Sri Lanka.
TOP
	VODAFONE
Vodafone Essar, previously Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that covers 23 telecom circles in India. Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are simply branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India with good presence in the metros. Vodafone Essar provides 2.75G services based on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice and data services in 23 of the country's 23 license areas. It is among the top three GSM mobile operators of India. Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 52%, Essar Group 33%, and other Indian nationals, 15%. On February 11, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, piping Reliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion. [2] . The transaction closed on May 8, 2007. The Vodafone subscriber base according to COAI - Cellular Operator Association of India as of Nov 2008 was: City/Circle Nov'2008  Mumbai 4115671  Delhi 3741037  Kolkata 2481872  Chennai 1472340  Gujarat 7241167  A.P. 3430016  Karnatka 3333207  Punjab 1944733  Haryana 1878339  U.P.(E) 5589567  Rajasthan 4343407  UP (W) 3825035  West Bengal 4000994  Maharashtra 3833719  Tamil Nadu 4509341  Kerala 2704412  Orissa 137445  Assam 45486  North East 29814  MP 30213  Bihar 76349  Himachal Pradesh New The total is 5,46,24,809 or 23.38% of the total 233,676,930 GSM mobile connections in India till Sept 2008. Nov 2008 Vodafone Essar 58764164 or 23.57% of total 249349436
TOP
	Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited
MTNL is an Indian Government-owned telephone service provider in the cities of Mumbai, Thane, New Delhi, and Navi Mumbai in India. The company was a monopoly until 2000, when the telecom sector was thrown open to other service providers. MTNL provides fixed line telephones, cellular connection of both GSM — Dolphin(Postpaid) and Trump (prepaid) and WLL (CDMA) — Garuda-FW And Garuda-Mobile and internet services through dialup and DSL — Broadband internet TriBand. MTNL has also started Games on demand, video on demand and IPTV services in India through its Broadband Internet service called Triband. Phone numbers belonging to MTNL start with the prefix 2 infixed line telephonesand WLL & in GSM Mobile servises its start from 9869/9969/9868/9968. MTNL also provides other services such as VPN,Internet Telephony- VOIP and leased lines through BSNL and VSNL. MTNL has been actively providing connections in both Mumbai and New Delhi areas and the efficiency of the company has drastically improved from the days when one had to wait years to get a phone connection to now when one can get a connection in even hours. Pre-activated Mobile connections are available at many places across both Metros. MTNL has also unveiled very cost-effective Broadband Internet access plans (TriBand) targeted at homes and small businesses. At present MTNL enjoy's the largest of the market share of ISP services in Mumbai and Delhi. Former Indian Communications Minister Thiru Dayanidhi Maran had declared year 2007 as "Year of Broadband" in India and MTNL is gearing up to provide five million Broadband connectivity by the end of 2007. MTNL has upgraded existing TriBand (Broadband) connections for a speed of up to 2 MB/s without any extra cost. This 2 MB/s broadband service is being provided by MTNL at a cost of just US$5.00 per month. MTNL started 3G services in India under the name of "MTNL 3G Jadoo" Services offered include Video call, Mobile TV and Mobile Broadband with high speed data connectivity up to 2 Mbit/s speed from 11th December 2008, getting India 3G map of the world. MTNL plans to offer 3G services across India by mid-2009. After that MTNL Mobile users would be able to surf the internet with speeds up to 2 Mbit/s on their smart phones. MTNL will be installing 15 lakh 3G lines in the first phase of its 3G roll-out in Mumbai and Delhi (which currently have 40 lakh existing mobile lines).
TOP
	IDEA Cellular
It is a publicly listed company, having listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in March 2007. Idea Cellular is a leading GSM mobile service operator with pan India licenses. With a customer base of over 36 million in 15 service areas, operations are soon expected to start in Orissa and Tamil Nadu-the first steps in providing pan India services covering over 90% of India's telephony potential. A frontrunner in introducing revolutionary tariff plans, IDEA Cellular has the distinction of offering the most customer friendly and competitive Pre Paid offerings, for the first time in India in an increasingly segmented market. Customer Service and Innovation are the drivers of this Cellular Brand. A brand known for many firsts, Idea was the first to launch GPRS and EDGE in the country. Idea has received international recognition for its path-breaking innovations when it won the GSM Association Award for "Best Billing and Customer Care Solution" for 2 consecutive years. IDEA Cellular is part of the Aditya Birla Group, India's first truly multinational corporation. The group operates in 25 countries, and is anchored by over 100,000 employees belonging to 25 nationalities. The Group has been adjudged 'The Best Employer in India and among the Top 20 in Asia' by the Hewitt-Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007. Subscriber Base Idea's subscriber base as of October 2008 according to the [1] is as follows  Maharashtra and Goa - 6,260,690  Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh - 4,137,200  Andhra Pradesh - 4,325,204  Kerala - 3,712,887  Gujarat - 3,327,261  Uttar Pradesh (West) & Uttarakhand - 3,372,808  Delhi - 2,216,027  Haryana - 1,341,146  Uttar Pradesh (East) - 1,457,570  Rajasthan - 1,062,526  Himachal Pradesh - 117,253  Mumbai - 178,378  Bihar & Jharkhand - 73,987 Totalling to 31,582,937 or 9.86%(Approx.) of the total 320,330,393[1] mobile connections in India.
TOP
	Spice Telecom
Spice Telecom is the brand name of Spice Communications Limited, a mobile phone service provider in India. Spice Telecom is currently operating in the states of Punjab (India) and Karnataka i.e., in 2 circles of 23 Telecom Circles of India. Spice Communications Limited was promoted by Dilip Modi of Modi Wellvest Private Limited, which owns 40.80% of the company. Mod is promoted by Mr. Dilip Modi and Super Infosys. Telekom Malaysia Berhad owns 39.20% through TMI India Limited, Mauritius. TMI India Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of TM's international investment holding company TM International Sdn Bhd (TMI). Spice Telecom is a flagship company of MCorp Global (www.mcorpglobal.com) a cellular mobile telephone services provider in India. Launched over ten years ago, Spice’s cellular services have a customer base of over 4 million as on December 2008 in Punjab and Karnataka. Recently Aditya Birla Group owned Idea Cellular took over the ownership of Spice Telecom for over Rs.270 million. They plan to improve the coverage, customer friendliness and good service. The market share of Spice had fallen down in Karnataka, after their competitors weaned away many of its customers with good service. In spite of lower tariffs Spice could not regain the market share. Now it is hoped that Idea would change it all. Now Spice Telecom have a customer base of 4.4 Million subscribers in both circles.
TOP
	Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
BSNL is a public sector telecommunication company in India. It is India's largest telecommunication company with 24% market share as on March 31, 2008. Its headquarters are at Bharat Sanchar Bhawan, Harish Chandra Mathur Lane, Janpath, New Delhi. It has the status of Mini Ratna, a status assigned to reputed public sector companies in India. BSNL is India's oldest and largest Communication Service Provider (CSP). Currently has a customer base of 90 million as of June 2008.[1] It has footprints throughout India except for the metropolitan cities of Mumbai and New Delhi which are managed by MTNL. As on March 31, 2008 BSNL commanded a customer base of 31.55 million Wireline, 4.58 million CDMA-WLL and 54.21 million GSM Mobile subscribers. BSNL's earnings for the Financial Year ending March 31, 2007 stood at INR 397.15b (US$ 9.67 b) with net profit of INR 78.06b (US$ 1.90 billion). BSNL has an estimated market value of $ 100 Billion. The company is planning an IPO with in 6 months to offload 10% to public in the Rs 300-400 range valuing the company at over $100 billion. BSNL provides almost every telecom service in India. Following are the main telecom services provided by BSNL:  Universal Telecom Sevices : Fixed wireline services & Wireless in Local loop (WLL) using CDMA Technology called bfone and Tarang respectively. As of December 31, 2007, BSNL has 81% marketshare of fixed lines.  Cellular Mobile Telephone Services : BSNL is major provider of Cellular Mobile Telephone services using GSM platform under the brand name CellOne[2]. Prepaid cellular services of BSNL are know as Excel. As of March 31, 2007 BSNL has 17% share of mobile telephony in the country.  Internet : BSNL provides internet services through dial-up connection (Sancharnet) as Prepaid, (NetOne) as Postpaid and ADSL broadband (DataOne). BSNL has around 50% market share in broadband in India. BSNL has planned aggressive rollout in broadband for current financial year.  Intelligent Network (IN) : BSNL provides IN services like televoting, toll free calling, premium calling etc.
TOP
	BPL Mobile (Loop Mobile)
BPL Mobile has had the privilege of serving the communications needs of the financial capital of India for the last 13 years. Now BPL Mobile is being rebranded as Loop Mobile in Mumbai. Loop Mobile, represents growth with continuity. While Loop constantly work towards giving our subscribers a better network, innovative products and a superior mobile telephony experience, its subscribers can be assured of the same focus and commitment in providing the best network coverage, billing accuracy, and an unmatched personalized customer service. Loop Mobile has invested over Rs 300 crore to upgrade to NGIP (Next Generation IP) network. This highly efficient network upgrade enables loop to offer unmatched voice clarity and extensive coverage along with high-speed data services. We are happy to inform you that we are the only GSM network in Mumbai that has met all the TRAI benchmarks on network and service quality parameters again this year. We have also been rated as the best network by Voice & Data, leading Telecom magazine, in their SAARC Mobile Users' Satisfaction Survey 2008. Loop has gained a significant market share of incremental subscriber addition in Mumbai Circle for the last several months. The emphasis on growth is clearly reflected in our growing subscriber base - it crossed the 2-Million subscriber mark in Mumbai Circle in January 2009.
TOP
	Reliance Communications (formerly Reliance Infocomm)
Reliance Telecom and Flag Telecom, is part of Reliance Communications Ventures (RCoVL). It is an Indian telecommunications company. According to National Stock Exchange data, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani controls 66.77 per cent of the company, which accounts for more than 1.36 billion shares.[3] It is the flagship company of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, comprising of power (Reliance Energy), financial services (Reliance Capital) and telecom initiatives of the Reliance ADAG. It uses CDMA2000 1x technology for its existing CDMA mobile services, and GSM-900/GSM-1800 technology for its existing/newly launched GSM services. RelCom is also into Wireline Business throughout India and has the largest optical fiber communication (OFC) backbone architecture [roughly 110,000 km] in the country. Reliance Communications has interests in Direct To Home (DTH) TV also, known as "Big TV". It plans to launch its DTH business by July 2008. Once launched, RelCom will have presence across all B2C communications channel in one of the fastest growing markets in the world. On July 2007, the company announced it is buying US-based managed ethernet and application delivery services company Yipes Enterprise Services for a cash amount of Rs. 1200 crore rupees (equivalent of USD 300 million). The deal was announced complete in a press release in December 2007. In its first overseas acquisition, the Reliance group has amalgamated the United States-based Flag Telecom for $ 211 million [roughly Rs 950 crore (Rs 9.50 billion). On the 30th December 2008, Reliance Communications became the first telecom operator in the history of Indian telecommunications to simultaneously launch its GSM services in 14 circles, namely Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh(East & West) thereby establishing itself as a pan-India operator. It already operates GSM services in 8 circles namely Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, North Eastern states, Orissa, West Bengal.
TOP
	TATA Indicom
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) is a part of the Tata Group of companies, an Indian conglomerate. It operates under the brand name Tata Indicom in various telecom circles of India. The company forms part of the Tata Group's presence in the Telecommunication Industry in India, along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML) and TATA COMMUNICATIONS LTD. In February this year, TTSL announced that it would provide CDMA mobile services targeted towards the youth, in a joint venture with Virgin, UK,on a Franchisee model basis. Interestingly, Virgin Mobile is a direct competitor of TTSL in a number of telecom circles across the country. Tata Teleservices is part of the INR Rs. 2,51,543 Crore (US$ 62.5 billion) Tata Group, that has over 87 companies, over 330,000 employees and more than 2.8 million shareholders. With a committed investment of INR 36,000 Crore (USD $7.5 billion) in Telecom (FY 2006), the Group has a presence across the telecom value chain. Tata Teleservices spearheads the Group’s presence in the telecom sector. Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices was the first to launch CDMA mobile services in India with the Andhra Pradesh circle. The company acquired Hughes Telecom (India) Limited [now renamed Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited] in December 2002. With a total Investment of Rs 19,924 Crore, Tata Teleservices has created a Pan India presence spread across 20 circles that includes Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Gujarat, J & K, Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra, Mumbai, North East, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (E), Uttar Pradesh (W), Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. Having pioneered the CDMA 3G1x technology platform in India, Tata Teleservices has established 3G ready telecom infrastructure. It partnered with Motorola, Ericsson, Lucent and ECI Telecom for the deployment of its telecom network. The company is the market leader in the fixed wireless telephony market with a total customer base of over 3.8 million. Tata Teleservices’ bouquet of telephony services includes Mobile services, Wireless Desktop Phones, Public Booth Telephony and Wireline services. Other services include value added services like voice portal, roaming, post-paid Internet services, 3-way conferencing, group calling, Wi-Fi Internet, USB Modem, data cards, calling card services and enterprise services. Some of the other products launched by the company include prepaid wireless desktop phones, public phone booths, new mobile handsets and new voice & data services such as BREW games, Voice Portal, picture messaging, polyphonic ring tones, interactive applications like news, cricket, astrology, etc. Tata Indicom "Non Stop Mobile" allows pre-paid cellular customers to receive free incoming calls. Tata Teleservices Limited along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited have a subscriber base of 28 million customers in more than 5,000 towns. Tata Teleservices has also acquired GSM licenses for specific circles in India. Tata Telelservices is an unlisted entity. Tata Group and group firms own about 80 percent of the company, while investor C. Sivasankaran holds 8 percent. Tata Indicom in March 2008, crossed the 24 million subscribers mark in the wireless category with an overall subscriber base of over 25 million. It has a current subscriber base of 24.3 million and a 9.33% cumulative market share. Tata Indicom continues to register the highest CAGR at 113% in the wireless segment with a net base of 12.8 million against a starting base of 11.8 million. (All figures based on March 2008. Figures Available on AUSPI website) Tata Teleservices is no. 2 slot in terms of Market Share in Delhi NCR region with a subscriber base of 3 million. Value Added Services Tata Teleservices, in October 2007 launched Tata Zone, an infotainment portal on Tata Indicom BREW-enabled mobile phones, in Hindi. This service has applications, pricing details, downloads and browsing instructions in Hindi. The rationale behind this was simple: - 66% of all Indians speak Hindi, while less than 5% understand English. Under its VAS bouquet, TTSL offers services such as News, Games,Faith and Prayers, Ringtones, Fun Shows, Video Zone, Song Download Express, Cricket, Internet Surfing, Astrology, Mobile Office, and Remo Mail among others. The quality of these services however is nowhere near the data services provided by cellular operators in developed countries. Tata Indicom plans to provide m-commerce, mobile advertising, mobile TV and social networking under its VAS offerings
TOP
	AIRCEL
Aircel is a mobile phone service provider in India. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout Kerala, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Andhra Pradesh, Assam, North East India, Orissa, West Bengal (including Kolkata), Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar , Himachal Pradesh & Mumbai. Aircel was founded by NRI businessman C Sivasankaran. [1] Aircel is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Apollo Hospital Enterprise Ltd of India. It is India’s seventh largest GSM mobile service provider with a subscriber base of over 17 million. It has a market share of 6.3% among the GSM operators in the country. As on date, Aircel is present in 11 telecom circles (Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir,Kerala, North East, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Delhi) and with licences secured for the remaining 10 of the 23 telecom circles, the company plans to become a pan-India operator by 2009. 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 is also a category A ISP. 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 Multi Protocol Label Switching Virtual Private Networks (MPLS VPNs), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Managed Video Services on wireless platform including WiMAX. Aircel has won many awards for its services. Aircel got the highest rating for overall customer satisfaction and network quality in 2006 by Voice and Data. Aircel was rated as the top mid-size utility company in Business World’s ‘List of Best Mid-Size Companies’ in 2007. Moreover, Aircel has been selected as the best regional operator in 2008 by Tele.net. Aircel is headed by shahid mustafa who was asked to leave Hutchinson Essar Ltd - Mumbai. Aircel are one of the sponsors of the Indian Premier League Cricket Team Chennai Super Kings captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.It is also the sponsor for Professional Golf Tour of India from 2009 onwards.