AIRCEL TO LEAVE KERALA CIRCLE

One of the country's leading
mobile operator Aircel is likely to
scale down its GSM service in
Kerala circle. Reports from online
news websites and Mobile SIM
card retailers says that Aircel has
told its distributors, that the
company plans to remodel its
entire business structure and it
may not require their service for
a while.
However Aircel officially said
"Aircel is revamping its business
model innovatively to lower 'cost
to serve' without compromising
on customer service or network
experience. The telecom industry
is facing severe margin
pressures as the voice market is
maturing and the data demand
in its true sense is still nascent.
Operational costs are high and
incremental market demand for
relatively new players is
prohibitive."
As a first step, Aircel is stopping
its post-paid services and asked
the subscribers to convert to pre-
paid connection before 31st of
December. The company also
stopped giving out pre-paid
connections to new users and
the distribution of recharge
vouchers. This has caused
serious problem to 15 Lac Aircel
users in the state. They will
gradually stop all ICR (Intra-Circle
Roaming) tie ups with other
operators and GPRS services in
the circle.
As per the TRAI rule, any telecom
company who plans to quit its
service in any circle must give
one month notice period to its
subscribers so as to allow the
users to migrate to other GSM
providers. The company also has
to return its GSM spectrum.
However Aircel has neither done
both.
Currently Aircel has 300
employees and more than 80
authorized distributors in Kerala.
Aircel also plans to slow down its
operations in other circles like
Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh,
Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and
Punjab.