Idea Cellular


Idea Cellular Limited
was an Indian mobile network operator based at Mumbai, Maharashtra. Idea was a pan-India integrated GSM operator and had 220.00 million subscribers as of June 2018.

History

Idea Cellular was incorporated as Birla Communications Limited in 1995 after GSM licenses were won in Gujarat and Maharashtra circles. The company name was changed to Idea Cellular and the brand Idea was introduced in 2002 after a series of name changes following mergers and joint ventures with Grasim Industries, AT&T Corporation and Tata Group. Following the exit of AT&T Corporation and Tata Group from the joint venture in 2004 and 2006 respectively, Idea Cellular became a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Group. Malaysia based Axiata had bought around 20% stake in the company in 2008 for 2 billion USD.
Idea previously bought Spice Communications Ltd, operating as Spice Telecom, for over Rs 2,700 crore.

Merger with Vodafone India

The entry of Jio in 2016 had led to various mergers and consolidations in the Indian telecom sector. It was announced in March 2017 that even Idea Cellular and Vodafone India would be merged. The merger got approval from Department Of Telecommunications in July 2018. On August 30, 2018, National Company Law Tribunal gave the final nod to the Vodafone-Idea merger The merger was completed on 31 August 2018, and the newly merged entity was named Vodafone Idea Limited. The merger created the largest telecom company in India by subscribers and by revenue. Under the terms of the deal, the Vodafone Group holds a 45.2% stake in the combined entity, the Aditya Birla Group holds 26% and the remaining shares will be held by the public.

Operations

In the 2010 3G spectrum auction, Idea paid for spectrum in 11 circles. After the launch of MNP in India, Idea further strengthened its customer base because it was the mobile network with most net port-ins.

Radio frequency summary

Idea Cellular owned spectrum in 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz bands across the country.
Telecom circle coverageE-GSM
900MHz
Band 8		GSM / FD-LTE
1800MHz
Band 3		UMTS
2100MHz
Band 1		TD-LTE
2300MHz
Band 40		TD-LTE
2500MHz
Band 41
Delhi
Mumbai
Kolkata
Andhra Pradesh & Telangana
Gujarat
Karnataka
Maharashtra & Goa
Tamil Nadu
Haryana
Kerala
Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh
Punjab
Rajasthan
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
West Bengal
Assam
Bihar & Jharkhand
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu and Kashmir
North East
Odisha

Note: The above table contains Vodafone-Idea radio frequency details because they used to share their networks with each other via ICR in some circles. For example, Idea had started it's customers in Delhi access 4G services in May 2018 via the Vodafone network.