Telecom companies are trying to woo customers of crisis-hit Aircel

Telecom majors in the country are trying to woo the customers of crisis-hit Aircel, especially in Tamil Nadu where it has a significant presence. Airtel and Vodafone have seen 2.5 million Aircel customers porting their number to their services in the recent past, according to company officials.

Airtel has said that over 1.5 million Aircel customers, across Tamil Nadu, have opted to join Airtel.

“So far, Airtel has the highest share, around 50 per cent across India, of all port-ins from Aircel customers,” said a company statement. 

The company has said its total sites, in the state, is 33,000 , covering 95 per cent of the population in the state and its mobile broadband services are available in 41,000 villages and over 1,100 towns and cities across Tamil Nadu. 

Vodafone has said that around one million customers of Aircel have ported their number to Vodafone so far. With the new customers on board, the company said that it has invested around Rs 4.5 billion during the current financial year.

It has said it is helping customers to port-in by keeping all the retail touch points operational seven days a week. 

S Murali, Business Head Tamil Nadu, Vodafone India, said that its network is equipped with required bandwidth and additional capacity to serve the customers who are joining. 

"Tamil Nadu is a focus and significant growth market for Vodafone India. To cater to the growing volumes of customer usage and their increasing need for speed, the company has invested Rs 70 billion in Tamil Nadu circle (including Puducherry) till date including Rs 3.50 billion in the first half of FY17 to expand, modernize and build a more technology and energy efficient network," said the official.

Vodafone's retail footprint include over 800 branded stores spread across prominent localities in the circle. It has over 16 million customers in the circle and 21.8 per cent revenue market share during the three month ended December, 2017. It has invested around Rs 30 billion in Chennai till date and around Rs 1.5 billion during the current fiscal.

These companies are also offering attractive packages to attract and retain its customer base, amidst the severe competition. 

Tamil Nadu has been the stronghold for Aircel, which has been facing financial issues in the recent past. Aircel had around 15 million customers in Tamil Nadu out of the total 89 million customers across the country. 

Its services were interrupted after the infrastructure provider allegedly switched off the signals in a majority of the towers it has been using for non payment of penalty it has sought earlier, said Aircel officials earlier. 

With the services affected, customers started porting the number, which choked its system, creating panic among the customers. Besides, the company also approached the National Company Law Tribunal under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, which further accelerated the porting activity.