Recently, I have witnessed a significant increase in the advertising of Aircel. So thought, they must be now trying to build up as a national brand. Till now, it was focusing the southern part of India.

For the month of March, over 15 million subscribers have been added in the wireless segment. In absolute terms Reliance leads the operators with a little over 3 million additions to the subscribers. This number seems more predictable as Reliance is operating on a wider map in the country and its wireless services comprise of CDMA and the GSM.

But the real surprise comes from Aircel. The operator has been predominant in the southern states of India. Its presence on the country map was limited to this region and in terms of visibility, it was not of the stature of other competitors from the private sector. However, the numbers of March published by the regulator (TRAI) reveal a different story. Among the private cellular operators, Aircel has seen the maximum growth; it added 5.73% new subscribers compared to the previous month. Although, the operator has over 18 million of the total 391 million subscribers, which is around 5% (all wireless subscribers including WLL-F) of the market, the growth rate itself is an indication of its plans. No other private operator has been able to register a growth rate exceeding 4.4%. State owned BSNL leads the overall wireless operators with 5.89% increase. But this is attributed to WLL as well.

Talking in terms of pure cellular networks, Aircel has definitely emerged as a leader by way of proportionate increase in subscribers for the month.

Perhaps this has encouraged the operator to advertise heavily as it is expanding its network in other regions (circles).