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Introduction
Maxis' expansion into Indonesia and India is another milestone in our aspiration to be the regional communications leader of choice. Maxis currently owns 74% equity interest in Aircel, India and 44% equity interest in NTS, Indonesia. These acquisitions give Maxis a strong foothold in two of the world's most attractive high-growth, low-penetration markets. |
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Maxis in India
Maxis completed the acquisition of a 74% stake in Aircel on March 21, 2006. Aircel is the fifth largest GSM mobile service provider in India, serving over 20 million subscribers as at May 2009, and is the fastest growing telecom company in India, achieving a growth of 71% over 2008. Aircel is also the market leader in Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Assam and North East. Aircel has received many awards including Best Regional Operator Award (Tele.Net, 2007), No.1 in Overall Customer Satisfaction Index (IDC India, 2007) and No.1 Overall Mobile Satisfaction Survey (Voice and Data, 2006). Aircel was also rated amongst the fastest growing Small and Medium Enterprises in the country (Business World, 2007).
Aircel is now a National Player in India, with operations in 18 of the 23 telecom circles. Aircel offers services in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, North East, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Kolkata. In addition, in 2009, Aircel launched services in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Mumbai and Maharashtra.
Having received mobile licenses to operate in all 23 circles, Aircel is poised to become a Pan-India telecom player with planned expansion of its operations via commercial launch in all remaining circles. Aircel's network provides 2G and GPRS services and is fully EDGE enabled. It has also successfully concluded 3G trials on its network.
Besides GSM services, Aircel also provides International Long Distance (ILD) and National Long Distance (NLD) telephony services. Moreover, Aircel is amongst the first to pioneer WiMax in India, becoming the first operator in India and amongst the few in the world to provide pan-city WiMax coverage in December 2006. The WiMax services are targeted at the SME and enterprise markets, with coverage extended to the top 51 business cities across India.
With a broad range of new propositions for its customers and key initiatives on branding, network coverage, innovative product and service offerings and refreshing customer experiences, Aircel has charted out a path for continued growth and building the most exciting telecom brands in India.
Aircel also takes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) seriously and has initiated various projects such as "Save the Tiger" campaign, "Education for the underprivileged" project and "Education through WiMax" initiative. Aircel has also partnered with the foremost Institute of Scientific Research in India, IISC Banglaore to set up the Aircel-IISC Telecom Center of Excellence, which will undertake research in the subjects of Disaster Management and Information Security.
Aircel currently has more than 4,000 employees, with an additional outsourced workforce of 3,000 across the country.
Aircel's current footprint is illustrated below. |
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Maxis in Indonesia
The equity interest of PT Natrindo Telepon Seluler (NTS) is held 51% by STC, 44% by Maxis, and 5% by Indonesian shareholders. This strategic partnership is expected to bring significant benefits to NTS and other stakeholders as it will allow the company to accelerate its network expansion in Indonesia, generate new employment opportunities in the telecommunications sector and contribute to the transfer of technology and skills to NTS.
With an aggressive strategy to enter the market, capability to ramp-up network rollout and funding availability, NTS is in a position to launch commercial services by early 2008.
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