IDEA Cellular is a publicly listed company, having listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in March 2007.

IDEA Cellular is a leading GSM mobile services operator in India with 67 million subscribers, under brand IDEA. It is a pan India integrated GSM operator covering the entire telephony landscape of the country, and has NLD and ILD operations.

A frontrunner in introducing revolutionary tariff plans, IDEA Cellular has the distinction of offering the most customer friendly and competitive Pre Paid offerings, for the first time in India, in an increasingly segmented market. From basic voice & Short Message Service (SMS) services to high-end value added & GPRS services such as Blackberry, Datacard, Mobile TV, Games etc - IDEA is seen as an innovative, customer focused brand.

IDEA offers affordable and world-class mobile services to varied segments of mobile users. Be it high end users, or low-end, price sensitive consumers - IDEA's tariff plans are designed to suit every pocket.

With a vision of delighting its customers while meeting their individual communication needs anytime, anywhere, IDEA offers seamless coverage to roaming customers traveling to any part of the country, as well as to international traveling customers across over 200 countries. IDEA Cellular has partnership with over 400 operators to ensure that customers are always connected while on the move, within the country or other parts of the world.

IDEA is the winner of 'The Emerging Company of the Year Award' at The Economic Times Corporate Excellence Awards 2008-09. The company has received several other national and international recognitions for its path-breaking innovations in mobile telephony products & services. It won the GSM Association Award for "Best Billing and Customer Care Solution” for 2 consecutive years. It was awarded "Mobile Operator of the Year Award - India” for 2007 and 2008 at the Annual Asian Mobile News Awards (Click here to view the complete list )*

IDEA Cellular is an Aditya Birla Group Company, India's first truly multinational corporation. The group operates in 25 countries, and is anchored by over 1,30,000 employees belonging to 30 nationalities. The Group has been adjudged the '6th Top Company for Leaders in Asia Pacific Region' in 2009, in a survey conducted by Hewitt Associates, in partnership with The RBL Group, and Fortune. The Group has also been rated 'The Best Employer in India and among the Top 20 in Asia' by the Hewitt-Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007.

The Indian telecommunications market for mobile services is divided into 22 "Service Areas" classified into "Metro", Category "A", Category "B" and Category "C" service areas by the Government of India. These classifications are based principally on a Service Area's revenue generating potential.

IDEA is a pan-India operator with services being made available in all parts of the country.

The telecom service areas have been divided into Established and New Service Areas.

The established service areas are Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (West).

Licenses for the Maharashtra and Gujarat Service Areas were awarded in December 1995, with network rollout and commercial launch achieved in 1997. In January 2001 the mobile operations in Andhra Pradesh Service Area were integrated with IDEA through a merger with Tata Cellular Limited.

In June 2001, the mobile operations in Madhya Pradesh Service Area were fully integrated with IDEA through an acquisition of RPG Cellcom Limited. In October 2001, the license for Delhi Service Area was acquired during the fourth mobile license auction, with network rollout and commercial launch in November 2002.

In January 2004, Escotel Mobile Communications Private Limited ("Escotel"), was acquired with its original licenses in the Service Areas of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (West) and Kerala. All these Service Areas were re-branded and integrated with IDEA in June 2004.

The New Service Areas are Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Mumbai, Karnataka, Punjab, Orissa, Chennai & Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Kolkata & West Bengal, and Assam & North East.

Licenses for Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh were acquired through the acquisition of Escotel (Escorts Telecommunications Limited).

Idea launched its services in Mumbai and Bihar in 2008. The Mumbai launch was the largest Metro City launch in India. In Bihar, Idea acquired 500,000 subscribers in just over 100 days.

Brand Idea was launched in Karnataka and Punjab, through the acquisition of Spice Communications.

The company has expanded its pan-India presence through service launches in Orissa, Chennai & Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Kolkata & West Bengal, and the North East states in FY10.