Idea Cellular expands its operations to Chennai

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 09 July 2009, 22:16 IST   |    3 Comments
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Idea Cellular expands its operations to Chennai
Bangalore: Idea Cellular has announced the launch of its GSM mobile services in Chennai. By covering all service areas in South India, Idea is expanding to become a pan-India operator this year. Idea's 2.75G EDGE enabled network will cover Chennai and over 500 towns and villages by the end of this financial year. Sanjeev Aga, Managing Director, Idea Cellular said, "Chennai is a strategic market for Idea, and we are happy to launch our services in this metro city. This not only provides us a platform to further strengthen our market position in the South, but is also a key milestone in our national roll-out plan." A population of 7.2 million and teledensity of over 130 percent makes Chennai a strategic market in the South. Overall, Idea plans to set up a network of 2400 cell sites across Tamil Nadu and Chennai, covering 1200 towns by the end of March 2010. With this foray, Idea plans to leverage its strength to become the Operator of Choice for mobile users in the South. The telecom operator gets 25 percent of its subscriber base from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. An Aditya Birla Group company, Idea plans to develop its customer service with a robust retail network comprising of exclusive 'My Idea Stores', 'Idea Points' and other outlets. Over 25,000 retail outlets and 60 Idea showrooms will be set up in the state. Multiple tariff plans ranging from competitive special tariff vouchers, to variable talk time and validity offerings, based on the consumption and usage patterns of customers in Tamil Nadu will be the inaugural offer. In addition, special Value Added Services (VAS) which include Idea Vanavil, Tamil Ullagam, Thirukural alerts on SMS, Rahu Kalam, background music, and ring back tunes will be made available for subscribers. '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 for Idea subscribers in the state. Today Idea has over 147 million subscribers across 18 telecom circles. Himanshu Kapania, Director Operations, Idea Cellular said, "Idea aims to provide the citizens of Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu, superior connectivity, whisper clear audio quality, zero call congestion and high capacity, ahead of time. Idea's 2.75G capable and 3G ready core network provides for all future technological enhancements."