Idea Cellular was an Indian telecommunications company based at Mumbai, Maharashtra.[3] It was an integrated GSM operator and had 220.00 million subscribers as of June 2018.[4]
In 2018 Idea Cellular merged with Vodafone India into Vodafone Idea.[5]
Idea Cellular was incorporated as Birla Communications in 1995 after GSM licenses were won in Gujarat and Maharashtra
Idea previously bought a 40.8% stake in Spice Telecom, for over ₹2,700 crore.[9]
The entry of Jio in 2016 had led to various mergers and consolidations in the Indian telecom sector.[10] It was announced in March 2017 that even Idea Cellular and Vodafone India would be merged. The merger got approval from Department of Telecommunications in July 2018. On August 30, 2018, National Company Law Tribunal gave the final nod to the Vodafone-Idea merger [11] The merger was completed on 31 August 2018, and the newly merged entity was named Vodafone Idea.[12][13][14][15] The merger created the largest telecom company in India by subscribers and by revenue. Under the terms of the deal, the Vodafone Group holds a 45.2% stake in the combined entity, the Aditya Birla Group holds 26% and the remaining shares will be held by the public.[15]
On 7 September 2020, Vodafone Idea unveiled this new brand identity, Vi, which involved the integration of the company's erstwhile separate brands Vodafone India and Idea Cellular into one unified brand.
In the 2010 3G spectrum auction, Idea paid inr 57680000000 for spectrum in 11 circles.[16] After the launch of MNP in India, Idea further strengthened its customer base because it was the mobile network with most net port-ins.[17]
Idea Cellular owned spectrum in 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz bands across the country.[18]
Note: The above table contains Vodafone Idea radio frequency details because they used to share their networks with each other via ICR (intra-circle roaming agreement) in some circles. For example, Idea had started giving its customers in Delhi access to 4G services in May 2018 via the Vodafone network.[19][20]
