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Maxis denies plans to sell Aircel stake to AT&T (Malaysia)

  • July 1st, 2008
  • 2:38 pm

Malaysia’s Maxis Communications dismisssed reports it is planning to sell its 74% stake in India’s Aircel, a Reuters report said.

Earlier, the Economic Times of India said Maxis is looking to sell the stake to US giant AT&T.

The unlisted, Kuala Lumpur-based Maxis denied the report and reiterated its commitment to build Aircel’s mobile business in India, the world’s fastest-growing cellular market, the Reuters report said.

“This news item is based on speculation, having no basis whatsoever. We are not aware of any discussions with AT&T about this matter,” Maxis said in a statement.

“Maxis Communications and its partners remain committed to the accelerated growth and development of Aircel to be a successful Pan-Indian operator,” it said.

In May, Maxis said it would spend €2.5 billion (US$4 billion)-€3.1 billion (US$5 billion) in India by 2009/10 to expand its network. It has in the past denied newspaper reports that it planned to exit its Aircel unit.

Unlisted Aircel, which has 7,000 telecom towers, has nearly 11 million subscribers in India.

AT&T, which has applied for licences in India in partnership with the Mahindra Group, was reported last year to be eyeing a wireless acquisition in the fast-growing market.

It said earlier this year it would invest €635 million (US$1 billion) worldwide for expansion.

   
 

Russia’s Sistema buys into India (India)

  • September 27th, 2007
  • 3:15 pm

Russian conglomerate Sistema has acquired a 10% stake in Indian fixed line telco Shyam Telelink for USD11.4 million. The Russian company had been reportedly scouting around for a local partner for more than a year and had previously tried to pick up a 49% stake in cellular service provider Aircel. As part of the deal, Sistema has the option to purchase a further 41% of Shyam and could even increase its stake to the maximum 74% if it gains approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Shyam Telelink, which offers basic telephony services in the state of Rajasthan, recently applied for new licences to offer unified access telecom services in 22 other states.

   

 

Maxis denies plans to quit Aircel (India)

  • September 13th, 2007
  • 1:16 pm

Malaysian cellco Maxis Communications has denied reports carried by the Times of India newspaper claiming that it is planning to exit its Indian Aircel unit. ‘This report is speculative, having no basis whatsoever,’ a Maxis spokesperson said in a statement sent by email. ‘Maxis Communications is committed to the Indian telecommunications market as a long-term investor. Together with the Apollo Group, our Indian partner, Maxis is accelerating investments in network infrastructure to further develop Aircel as a strong Pan-Indian operator.’

   

 

 

STC to buy 25% of Maxis

  • June 26th, 2007
  • 1:50 pm

Saudi Telecom Co (STC) has confirmed that it has agreed a SAR11.4 billion deal that will give it a 25% stake in Maxis Communications, Malaysia’s largest mobile operator by subscribers. STC will also take a 51% stake in Maxis’s Indonesian operation, Natrindo Telepon Seluler (Lippo Telecom).

In an announcement to the Saudi bourse the two operators said they would invest about USD900 million in India to help Maxis, via its 65% owned subsidiary Aircel, expand operations in the world’s second most populous country. ‘This transaction represents an important step for the company’s drive to become an influential player in the global telecoms sector,’ Saudi Telecom Chairman Mohammed al-Jasser was quoted as saying in the statement.

In May 2007 Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan offered to buy full control of Maxis Communications for MYR15.8 billion (USD4.6 billion) to facilitate its overseas expansion. Private investors that between them owned 40% of the company, received MYR15.60 a share, 20% higher than the closing share price. The bid valued the company at MYR39.5 billion. Maxis said it plans to spend USD3 billion over the next five years expanding its network in India to counter slowing growth at home. Aircel, Maxis’s Indian arm, generated 13% of fourth-quarter sales last year. Aircel said in February it expects to almost double its subscribers to eight million this year.

   

 
 

Hutch becomes third largest operator

  • June 20th, 2007
  • 12:22 pm

GSM operators added 50 lakh (5 million) subscribers in May, taking the all-India GSM subscriber base to 13.06 crore (130 million).

1.Bharti Airtel = 18.51 lakh new, 4.07 crore total
2.BSNL = 2.38 lakh new, 2.79 crore total
3.Hutch-Essar = 15.06 lakh new, 2.92 crore total
4.Idea = 7.03 lakh new, 1.52 crore total
5.Aircel = 64.08 lakh total
6.Spice = 1.92 lakh new, 30 lakh total
7.MTNL = 64,098 new, 25.47 lakh total
Hutch-Essar (Vodafone) has become the second largest GSM player in the country, displacing BSNL.

Hutchison Essar MD, Asim Ghosh sounds like a Bollywood actress denying she is in the race to be No. 1.

“We don’t watch subscribers — we just watch revenues. We have been No. 2 in revenues for a long time now”.

(India)

   
 

Hutch becomes third largest operator

  • June 14th, 2007
  • 2:09 pm

GSM operators added 50 lakh (5 million) subscribers in May, taking the all-India GSM subscriber base to 13.06 crore (130 million).

Bharti Airtel = 18.51 lakh new, 4.07 crore total
BSNL = 2.38 lakh new, 2.79 crore total
Hutch-Essar = 15.06 lakh new, 2.92 crore total
Idea = 7.03 lakh new, 1.52 crore total
Aircel = 64.08 lakh total
Spice = 1.92 lakh new, 30 lakh total
MTNL = 64,098 new, 25.47 lakh total
Hutch-Essar (Vodafone) has become the second largest GSM player in the country, displacing BSNL.

Hutchison Essar MD, Asim Ghosh sounds like a Bollywood actress denying she is in the race to be No. 1.

“We don’t watch subscribers — we just watch revenues. We have been No. 2 in revenues for a long time now”.

   
 

NSN Wins Aircel Contract

  • May 31st, 2007
  • 1:37 pm

Nokia Siemens Networks today announced that it has won its first contract from Maxis Group, India, which operates under brand name of Aircel, to build a greenfield GSM network in Kolkata. The Rs. 300 crore contract includes supply of GSM/EDGE equipment, implementation, project management and managed services, such as operating and maintaining the network infrastructure. Nokia Siemens Networks will deploy latest state-of–the-art equipment like Flexi base stations, mini-ultra base stations, 3GPP-based mobile softswitching solution including MSC Servers and Media Gateways PDH, SDH. The network will be supported by the multi-technology, multi-vendor NetAct network and service management system, and will be ready for commercial operations by December 2007.

Commenting on the partnership, Sandeep Das, CEO, Maxis, said: “Today’s announcement is another step in our efforts to build a strong GSM network footprint for Aircel across the world’s fastest growing mobile market. The roll-out of our network in Kolkata will further consolidate our position in East India.” He added “We chose Nokia Siemens Networks as they met our three key criteria – protecting our network investments against technology obsolescence, extensive managed service experience and speedy network deployment within our timelines.”

Added Rohit Chandra, CEO North & East, Aircel, “Our partnership with Nokia Siemens Networks will provide us with the latest GSM technologies such as the multi-radio Flexi Base Station Platform that will not only help us provide services today but will also makes our network ready for 3G and WIMAX services as and when the regulation permits.”

“This contract is special as it is our first contract with Aircel, and we’re very pleased about it,” said Mr. Ashish Chowdhary, Head India Sub-region, Nokia Siemens Networks. He added, ”We would also like to congratulate Aircel on its innovative approach to the provisioning of mobile services in a greenfield network by going for Managed Services right from the start. This will not only help them in achieving OPEX savings but also allow them to focus on their customers’ acquisition and service strategies from the first day of commercial operations.”

   
 

Aircel brass press exit key

  • April 9th, 2007
  • 8:07 am

EconomicTimes writes…Aircel Cellular, India’s fifth largest GSM service provider, has lost its management brass, ET has learnt. According to sources, Aircel CEO Jagdish Kini and its CFO Ganapathy Subramaniam have already tendered their resignations while the company’s legal council head Rajinder Singh is also set to leave.

(Malaysian telecom major Maxis Communications holds a controlling stake in Aircel. In December ‘05, Maxis had acquired 76% stake in the C Sivasankaran-promoted company for $1.1 billion in partnership with the Chennai’s Reddy family)

When contacted over the issue, Mr Kini confirmed the developments. Mr Kini had joined Aircel Group as CEO in October 2006. Prior to that, he had worked with various global FMCG companies such as Procter & Gamble, Parke Davis, L’Oreal and Gillette (West Asia and Asia), in addition to working with Bharti Airtel.

Sources said that Mr Kini, who is currently based in Bangalore, had tendered his resignation since he was unable to relocate to either Chennai or Delhi to oversee Aircel’s India operations. On the other hand, its CFO Subramaniam is leaving to relocate to Mumbai, sources added.

At the same time, there is also speculation in the industry that the exit of Aircel’s top executives is related to Hutch-Essar’s former deputy managing director Sandeep Das taking over Maxis’s CEO in Malaysia. Hutch and Aircel are competitors in the GSM space in India.

However, this could not be independently confirmed. Besides, Aircel executives also denied that this factor had any relation with their leaving while adding that they were exiting the company due to personal commitments.

Sources also added that Mr Kini, while keeping his corporate options open, was headed back to the consulting firm — Enterprise 5c, which he had started before joining Aircel. For Aircel, the exit of top executives comes at a crucial time. Maxis, which had invested Rs 2,700 crore in Aircel during the last fiscal, has announced an invest over Rs 2,000 crore in the company in 2007-08, and has also set a target of reaching 8 million subscribers during this period.

Aircel, which currently offers services in 9 telecom circles, had paid Rs 1,350 crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT) towards entry fee for licenses in 14 new circles in the country. It is expected to have a pan-India presence by 2009. Recently, it was also awarded national and international long distance licenses by the DoT.

 

 

 
 

Aircel completes 3G testing

  • March 2nd, 2007
  • 1:27 pm

Telegeography writes…Malaysian-owned wireless network operator Aircel has revealed that it has successfully tested a 3G network in Chennai. The trial was conducted in association with Chinese equipment vendor ZTE Corporation. ‘We have successfully completed our 3G trials in Chennai in accordance with the 3G-Partnership Project and the guidelines issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT),’ said Jagdish Kini, Aircel’s Group Chief Executive Officer. The company hopes to roll out the service commercially in December 2007, once 3G concessions have been awarded by DoT. In the meantime, DoT has permitted some wireless operators to conduct 3G trials in selected cities up until 31 March 2007. Aircel was given permission to conduct trials in Chennai, Coimbatore, Bhubaneshwar, Shillong and Guwahati.

Aircel plans to roll out 3G networks in more than 20 cities over the next two years, at the same time as installing WiMAX infrastructure in more than 40 cities, at an estimated cost of USD400 million.

 

GSM operators to launch Instant Messaging service in 3-4 weeks

  • January 16th, 2007
  • 12:22 pm

newKerala writes…GSM-based mobile operators are gearing up to launch a key component of web-based value added service — Instant Messaging — in the next three weeks, where a subscriber can send and receive real time messages.

The mobile Instant Messaging was soft launched by Cellular Operators Association of India today, the software for which has been designed and and engineered by Jataayu Software in partnership with Fast Mobile.

To access instant messaging, a customer needs to have a GPRS (web-enabled handset) and the normal GPRS charges will be applicable depending on the usage.

With India adding over six million mobile users every month, this service will gain momentum. The service is not specific to English language users but would also be available to common users in their mother tongue, Department of Telecom Secretary D S Mathur said.

“Instant Messaging uses the internet in similar manner as chatting and does many other things. It combines the power of internet chat on the PC and brings it on to the small screen. Considering that India has a very low PC penetration, this will develop very fast on the mobile,” COAI Chairman Sanjeev Aga said.

Operators like BSNL, MTNL, Bharti Airtel, Hutch-Essar, Idea, Aircel, Reliance Telecom, Spice and BPL are expected to commercially launch this service in the next 3-4 weeks.

The percentage of mobile users with IM-capable phones will grow to 62 per cent in 2010 from a mere 4 per cent currently, COAI Technical Committee Chairman Ashok Juneja said.

The service is already available in Europe, China and Turkey and would be launched this year in Hong Kong, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh, he added.