Type Founded Founder(s) Headquarters Products

Revenue Employees

Private 1857 Ghanshyam Das Birla Mumbai, India Metals, cements, textiles, agribusiness, carbon black, insulators, telecommunications, financial services, chemicals, information technology, retail, US$ 40 billion (2012) 133,000 (2011)

Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Laos, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, UAE, UK, USA and Vietnam.

UltraTech Cement Limited Samruddhi Cement Aditya Birla Chemicals (India)Limited Idea Cellular Limited Aditya Birla Finance Limited Aditya Birla Insurance Brokers Aditya Birla Retail Indo Phil Textile Mills

Idea Cellular
Type Industry Founded Headquarters Key people Public BSE: 532822 NSE: IDEA Telecommunications 1995 Santacruz East, Mumbai, India Kumar Mangalam Birla (Chairman)

Products
Revenue Operating income Net income Total assets Owner(s) Employees Parent Website

Mobile telephony, Wireless broadband

15,389.00 crore (US$2.79 billion) (2011) 2,879.33 crore (US$521.16 million) (2011) 844.60 crore (US$152.87 million) (2011) US$5.334 billion (2010) Vishal Bhilare 6,481 (2010) Aditya Birla Group (49.05%) Axiata Group Berhad (15%) Providence Equity (10.6%) http://www.ideacellular.com/

History
In 2000, Tata Cellular was a company providing mobile services in Andhra Pradesh. When Birla-AT&T brought Maharashtra and Gujarat to the table, the merger of these two entities was a reality. When Birla-AT&T brought Maharashtra and Gujarat to the tableThus Birla-Tata-AT&T, popularly known as Batata, was born and was later rebranded as IDEA.

 The

company has its retail outlets under the "My Idea" banner.

Customer service

It also offers GPRS services in urban areas.

Idea Cellular won the GSM Association Award for "Best Billing and Customer Care Solution" for 2 consecutive years IDEA Cellular has been recognized as the 'Most Customer Responsive Company' in the Telecom sector, at the prestigious Avaya GlobalConnect Customer Responsiveness Awards 2010

 Initially the Birlas, the Tatas and AT&T Wireless each held one-third equity in the company. But following AT&T Wireless' merger with Cingular Wireless in 2004, Cingular decided to sell its 32.9% stake in Idea. This stake was bought by both the Tatas and Birlas at 16.45% each.
On 10 April 2006, the Aditya Birla Group announced its acquisition of the 48.18% stake held by the Tatas at Rs. 40.51 a share amounting to Rs. 44.06 billion. While 15% of the 48.14% stake was acquired by Aditya Birla Nuvo, a company in-charge of the Birlas' new business initiatives, the remaining stake was acquired by Birla TMT holdings Private Ltd.

Holding

3G
On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended
Idea paid 5768.59 crores for spectrum in 11 circles The circles it will provide 3G in are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Goa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh (East) and Uttar Pradesh (West). On 28 March 2011, Idea launched 3G services in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh Idea currently supports up to 21.1 Mbit/s over 2G speeds of 256 kbit/s Idea cellular has announced a cut of 70% in the tariff of its 3G services.

Idea 3G Smartphone
On 23 November 2011 Idea Cellular launched two affordable 3G
handsets in India Idea 3G Smartphone Blade priced at 7,992 and Idea 3G Smartphone priced at 5,850 Both handsets are based on Android 2.2 Froyo Idea has also launched a Dual-SIM Android smartphone in India on June 15, 2012 named as Idea ID-918 at a price point of Rs.5,994 ($108 approx.) It features Android v2.3 OS, 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, 3G, Wi-Fi and 3.2 MP rear facing camera.

 Andhra Pradesh Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra and Goa Punjab Kerala Delhi Kolkata Kanpur Uttar Pradesh (East)

3G Coverage State

 Idea's subscriber base as at the end of August 2011 according to the statistics Idea leads all other telecom operators in India in the MNP (Mobile Number Portability) race, with a net gain of 10,31,380 subscribers as on 31 August 2011.

Subscriber base

Competitors
Idea competes with 14 other mobile operators throughout India. They are Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, Loop Mobile, MTNL, MTS, Ping Mobile, Reliance Communications, S Tel, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Indicom, Uninor, Videocon, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.

Video Calling ISD Booth

On 21 September 2011, Idea inaugurated Keralas first Video Calling ISD booth in Kottakkal, Malappuram
Idea has come out with the idea of setting up ISD video calling booths wherein users can not only talk but see the person live in real-time. The person receiving the call should be using a 3G handset on a 3G connection.

General packet radio service (GPRS)

General packet radio service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication system's global system for mobile communications (GSM)

GPRS usage is typically charged based on volume of data

GSM Association
The GSM Association was formed in 1995. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the worlds mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations.