For a company that launched cellular services in India for the first time, Kolkata-based Spice Cell promoted by the Modicorp Group, has not been able to create a mobile market that befits Calcutta, the center for commerce in Eastern India. Succeeding only in niches so far, it was only in the recent past that this operator has attained a measure of success as a service for the common man—attaining a subscriber base of 1 lakh last fiscal. Though Spice has been able to generate a reasonable revenue of Rs 90 crore through its operation in the city, it can do much more in this commercial hub.

As a premium brand, it endeavoured to provide value-added services by allying with British Telecommunications and Singapore Telecom to provide an in-flight communication service, and Jet Airways & Eastern Railways to provide air travel and railway information services. The first of its kind in India, Spice set up an EPABX system for ITC based on the CUG concept to ease communication between ITC & its cigarette factory, thus ensuring accessibility, connectivity and productivity. Spice has around 3000 corporate users constituting 80% share in the Kolkata market.

Recently, Spice tied up with MRO-TEK to consolidate its existing broadband Ethernet switching solutions in the metro areas.