VODAFONE - IDEA MERGER

THIS NEW FIRM BEATS AIRTEL TO BECOME NO.1

CEO of vodafone(vittorio Colao)on right side and CEO of Idea ( Himanshu Kapania)

India's telecom sector has a new top cat after around 15 years:the Idea cellular and vodafone India combine. With the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) giving the green light to the merger of the two telecom companies yesterday-the largest in the sector-Bharti Airtel is now no longer the country's largest mobile phone company in terms of subscribers and revenue share.

Earlier today,the Aditya Birla Group, of which Idea cellular is a part, announced the Competition of the merger. The new entity, Vodafone Idea Ltd,will kick off with 408 million active subscribers, a 32.2 per cent revenue market share (RMS), revenue of more than Rs 60,000 crore, a large spectrum portfolio of 1850 MHz and 15,000 branded stores.

It also boasts the largest voice network with over 200,000 unique GSM sites to cover over 1.2 billion Indians or 92 per cent population coverage, and a growing broadband network with over 340,000 broadband sites covering 840 million Indians.