Aircel will stay in the industry for a few more months as subscribers started making their way to other networks. S Murali, Business Head, Vodafone India said that the telco managed to add close to 10 Lakh Aircel subscribers in the last few weeks. Vodafone currently has 27% subscriber market share and 23% revenue market share in Tamil Nadu circle as per the company representative. Vodafone is also expecting that more Aircel users will join its network going forward and have made necessary requirements to meet the demand. Vodafone retail stores in the circle have been open all seven days in the last few weeks and will continue to be the same going forward.
“We have augmented capacity and added bandwidth to support the increasing demand from our own customers as well as new ones. Our retail stores have been open all 7 days for the last few weeks,” said S Murali to reporters yesterday.
Last week, BSNL officials confirmed that over 1.86 Lakh Aircel customers had joined its network since the start of Aircel network problem. After Vodafone's news, BSNL's number seems to be a very small one, and it will be interesting to see Airtel's number because it's one of the best operator in Tamil Nadu, next to Aircel.
Interestingly, the majority of the Aircel' subscriber base is from Tamil Nadu and Chennai circles, which is the reason why rival operators are receiving port requests in a massive number.
Aircel is currently going through severe financial stress and has filed for bankruptcy at the NCLT Mumbai bench, which recently approved the petition. Aircel's woes are helping incumbent telecom operators as their subscriber base is increasing very quickly.
Vodafone India is also offering wired broadband services through its fully owned subsidiary YOU Broadband. The ISP recently introduced 200 Mbps broadband plan in several cities where it has operations.
