Aircel to invest Rs 550 crore in Tamil Nadu

Aircel, a cellular phone services provider in Tamil Nadu, expects to invest about Rs 550 crore during this financial year to expand its coverage in Tamil Nadu.

The company also announced that it roped in Tamil actor Suriya as its brand ambassador.

Addressing a press conference, K V P Baskar, chief executive officer, Aircel, said the company had so far covered 600 towns in the state and plans to take this number to about 1,200 towns by the end of this fiscal.

The company will be investing Rs 550 crore in setting up the infrastructure in the new towns, which will come under its coverage during this year.

As on April 30, the company had a subscriber base of 25 lakh in Chennai and Tamil Nadu. Prepaid customers accounted for 80 per cent of its subscriber base.

Baskar said with the increasing focus and relevance of brand image in the telecom industry, the company looked at signing up a brand ambassador as part of its strategy to develop a unique brand for Aircel.

He said that a film personality would help develop the brand image as the company was expanding into rural areas and outside the conventional markets.

"Aircel has never done celebrity endorsements in the past. We thought a movie-related personality would help reach the masses," he added.

The contract with Suriya is for a year on renewable basis. However, he declined to divulge the details on the endorsement fees.

Aircel, which was recently acquired by Malaysia's telecom major Maxis Communications, plans to spend Rs 22 crore on advertising and marketing programmes during this fiscal. Last year, it spent about Rs 15 crore on marketing programmes.

Maxis has 74 per cent stake in Aircel while the Apollo Group holds the rest. Baskar said the focus of the company had not changed after the acquisition and Maxis was keen on retaining the 'Aircel' brand.