Top 10 Indian Telecom Companies

Chennai: The Indian telecom sector is the third largest telecommunication network in the world and ranks second in Asia. It has been one of the fastest growing sectors in Indian economy earning its position of being a major contributor in India’s economic growth.

So, in order to celebrate the boom in the Indian telecom sector, here is a list of 10  major Indian telecom companies in the market compiled by mbaskool.com that have helped the telecom sector in achieving its current stature. Have a look:

Bharti Airtel

Ownership: Privately-held by Sunil Bharti Mittal

Date of Establishment: 7th July 1995

Market Share: 19.50 percent

Brief Description:

Airtel is the largest telecom service provider in India and operates in 20 countries across south Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands and provides 2G, 3G and 4G services. Ranking third mobile telecommunications company in the world, it has nearly 261 million subscribers out of which 200 million are in India. The biggest mobile telephony provider, it is known as being the first mobile phone company in the world to outsource all its business operations except marketing. It is the first telecom service provider to achieve a Cisco Gold certification. Among the countries where Airtel marks its presence, some are, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia etc. Airtel collaborated with RIM and launched its Blackberry services in October 2004. According to the annual survey conducted by brand Finance, it is the sixth most valuable brand.

Reliance Communications

Ownership: Privately-held by Reliance Group

Date of Establishment: 2004

Market Share: 16.70 percent

Brief Description: 

Reliance Communications is a subsidiary of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and provides telecom services across the country. Headquartered in Navi Mumbai, it ranks 16th on the global platform in terms of mobile operations and provides 2G and 3G services in the country. RCOM also provides National Long Distance and International Long Distance operations. Its customer base touches 150 million. It ranks among the top 5 telecom companies worldwide in terms of number of customers and its clientele is not limited to the individual customers but expands to corporate as well. It has services spanning all across the country and Reliance can be credited for bringing the telecom revolution in the country with its unbeatable pricing during times when mobile phones was a luxury for the business class people. It is the only operator which provides spped up to 28 Mbit/sec with its 3G MIMO technology.

Vodafone

Ownership: Privately-held by Vodafone group

Date of Establishment: 1994

Market Share: 16.40 percent

Brief Description:

Vodafone India, previously known as Vodafone Essar and Hutchinson Essar is one of the well renowned telecom service providers in India headquartered in Mumbai. In 2011, Vodafone Group agreed to buy the share of its partner Essar from the Indian mobile phone business. Vodafone paid $5.46 billion to take 33% stake in the Indian subsidiary. It left Vodafone with 74% of the Indian business, while the other 26% is owned by Indian investors. The company is valued to be $18.8 billion. The transaction took its final shape in 2007. Vodafone offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India with good presence in the metropolitan cities. It launched 3G services in the country in the January-March quarter of 2011 and has plans to spend up to $500 million within the next two years on its 3G networks.

Idea Cellular

Ownership: Privately-held by Aditya Birla group and others.

Date of Establishment: 1995

Market Share: 11.90 percent

Brief Description:

Idea Cellular is an Indian telecom service provider headquartered in Mumbai. Previously ran by Tata Cellular, it was bought by Birla-AT&T in 2000. This merger of Birla-Tata-AT&T was popularly known as Batata and was rebranded as IDEA. However, in the subsequent years, AT&T and Tata sold their stake in Idea and it became an entity of Aditya Birla group. The three companies held an equal stake in the company before AT&T decided to sell its stake. Both Tata and Birla bought AT&T’s stake with 16.45 percent each. Tata was still holding Idea when the company filed for a license to operate in Mumbai. For this reason, Idea could enter late in Mumbai after the intervention of the Department of Telecom. Tata left Idea but only for a major sum of money cmounting to  44 billion. Currently, Birla’s hold 49.05 percent shares in Idea and the remaining is held by Axiata Group and Providence equity.

BSNL

Ownership: Publically-held by Government of India

Date of Establishment: Incorporated on 15th September 2000

Market Share: 10.80 percent

Brief Description: 

BSNL or Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is a publically held telecom service provider in India. With its headquarters in New Delhi, it is the largest provider of fixed-line services and subsequently provides broadband services across the nation. Before the liberalization of Indian economy BSNL held the monopoly across the country except for Delhi and Mumbai which were covered by MTNL. It is India’s oldest communication service provider and enjoys a customer base of 95 million throughout India. Among the services that BSNL provides, some are, Universal Telecom Serives, Cellular Mobile Telephone Services, WLL-CDMA Telephone services, Internet, Intelligent Network, 3G, IPTV, FTTH, Helpdesk, VVoIP, WiMax. BSNL has 24 telecom circles, 2 metro districts, 6 project circles, 4 maintenance regions, 5 telecom factories, 3 training institutions and 4 specialized telecom units.

TATA Teleservices

Ownership: Privately-held by the TATA Group

Date of Establishment: January 2005

Market Share: 9.20 percent

Brief Description:

Tata Teleservices limited is a subsidiary of renowned Tata group and is headquartered in Mumbai. It provides broadband and telecommunications services across the country and operates under the name of Tata Docomo in various telecom circles across India. The Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo bought 26 percent stake in Tata Teleservices in November 2008 paying a sum of nearly  13,070 Crores. Previously in February 2008, Tata Teleservices limited announced its plan to launch a youth oriented CDMA service in association with Virgin Group. Currently, Tata Teleservices functions under the following brand names: Tata docomo, Virgin Mobile and T24 Mobile. It enjoys a subscriber base of more than 5 billion in Delhi alone and is provides tariff plans in both Post-paid and Pre-paid category. Its retail business has 3000 outlets across the country. It also became the first private sector telecom operator to launch 3G service in the country.

Aircel

Ownership: Privately-held by Maxis Communications and Sindya Securities & Investments.

Date of Establishment: 1999

Market Share: 6.90 percent

Brief Description: 

Aircel is an Indian telecom service provider jointely held by the Maxis Communications and Sindya Securities & Investments Private Limited. The Malaysian-based Maxis Communications hold a majority stake of 74 percent in the company. The current share-holders of Sindya Securities & Investments are the Reddy family that is famed for its Apollo Hospitals Group of India.  Headquartered in Chennai, it is one of the leading telecom service providers in Tamil Nadu, North East, Assam and Chennai. With a subscriber base of nearly 51.83 million, it is ranked seventh among the Indian mobile service providers (GSM & CDMA) and fifth among the GSM mobile service providers. The company has also obtained permission from the Department of Telecom (DoT) for providing International Long Distance and National Long Distance telephony services.

Uninor

Ownership: Privately-held by Unitech Group and Telenor Group

Date of Establishment: 3rd December 2009

Market Share: 4.2 percent

Brief Description:

 Uninor is an Indian telecom service provider that is jointly held by two companies: a Norway-based telecommunication company Telenor and an Indian real-estate company Unitech. Telenor holds a major stake of 67.25 percent in the company. Uninor is headquartered in Gurgaon (NCR Delhi) and provides its services in all of India’s 22 telecom circles. It offers voice and a data service based on the GSM technology and is commercially available in the 13 circles across India. Its major target is the youth and is a pioneer in charging as per day time and geographic location. During its launch, Uninor was available in 8 circles and 6 other circles were added in the initial six months. It follows a lean operational model and its network infrastructure is outsourced to its business partners. It is targeting 8 percent market share in the coming years.

Videocon

Ownership: Privately held by Videocon Group

Date of Establishment: 7th April 2010

Market Share: 0.78 percent

Brief Description:                        

Videocon Telecommunications Limited is a Videocon group company owned by Venugopal Dhoot. It is headquartered in Gurgaon (NCR Delhi). Launched in April 2010, Videocon Telecommunications Limited provides GSM services in almost all parts of India including Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Mumbai, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh among others under the brand name of Videocon. The Videocon group, an Indian Multinational company, is a global business conglomerate that has its roots spread in diverse markets and generates revenues worth $4 billion annually. The group has several manufacturing facilities and R&D departments spread all across the globe including American, Europe and Australia. Videocon has one of the strongest distribution networks in the country and enjoys a well-established reputation in the global market. The group is also involved in the manufacturing of mobile handsets under the same brand name.

MTNL

Ownership: Publically-held by Government of India

Date of Establishment: 1st April 1986

Market Share: 0.6 percent

Brief Description: 

MTNL or Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited is a publically-held telecom service provider which operates only in metro cities; Mumbai and Delhi and the island nation of Mauritius (Africa). Before the liberalization of the Indian economy, MTNL held a monopoly in the cities of Delhi and Mumbai which it lost after the market was opened for other service providers. The Indian government currently holds a 56.25 percent stake in the company that has a motto “Transparency Makes Us Different”. Though, MTNL’s inability to stand the stiff competition it faced from other major telecom providers later has reduced its market share to minimal decimals.