Rank 7: Functionally Defunct-AIRCEL

Aircel is functionally defunct. Its only after NCLT accepted its bankruptcy application that the operator ceased to exist. However, as this V&D 100 pertains to the Financial year 2017-18, it is still being reported in this report.

The bankruptcy of Aircel was filed after repeated attempts of acquisition by Jio failed to reach any conclusion.

Aircel could not capitalise on the rapid growth it had witnessed in Cat B and C circles where it had aggressively invested in the infrastructure and been able to capture higher market shares. However, its inability to judge the growth of 4G even in such markets, and, thus, remaining heavy on existing 2G/3G infrastructure did not let it build nor scale up around the time when India saw 4G coming up in a big way.

Aircel’s subscribers have ported to other operators of their choice after all of them launched special plans and packages for Aircel customers to port into their networks.