SHILLONG: People of rural Meghalaya depended on Aircel for connectivity. They swore that it was the only mobile telephone service provider that reaches right up to the darkest corner of the state. But suddenly in February this year, the service provider showed signs of defaulting. Call drops were frequent and calls to the service centres were met with false assurances until two days ago when customers learnt that the company was filing for bankruptcy in the National Company Law Tribunal.
Aircel is the third service provider to have left its customers high and dry without warning them to port their numbers to other companies. First it was Tata Indicom that suddenly packed up from Meghalaya and the North East. Reliance was next when the company suddenly winded up its business here after Jio stepped in. Now Aircel has left its customers in the lurch and there is no redressal mechanism, irate customers were heard complaining loudly in front of Aircel offices in the city of Shillong.
In villages, people are yet to understand what is happening. Angry and frustrated customers have put up all kinds of desperate messages on Facebook and Twitter but to no avail. Aircel has a customer base of 8.5 crore across India.
With smart phones having entered out lives, all business transactions are now conducted online. A mobile phone is linked to people’s bank accounts and online transactions require that a One Time Password (OTP) be fed into the banking transaction and that OTP is sent to one’s mobile number. Imagine the predicament of the 8.5 crore customers who will have to get a new connection from another company and register that number with their banks once again before they can do any digital transaction.
The Aircel Board of Governors admitted that the Company has been facing problems in a highly financially stressed industry, owing to intense competition after the entry of a new player obviously hinting at Mukesh Ambani’s Jio which had entered the mobile telephone market with a storm and literally swallowing up smaller players.
Aircel’s debt has risen to around Rs 15,500 crore and has seen its subscriber base shrink to around Rs 5.6 crore as against Rs 8 crore till December 2017.
Aircel’s problems started recently when Idea Cellular suspended interconnect services with Aircel due to non-payment of dues.
Idea Cellular is said to have stated that despite several reminders seeking dues pending since November 2017, the operator had failed to honour its payment commitments, forcing Idea to suspend interconnect services, in line with the agreement between the two operators.
Aircel, which recorded a quarterly operating profit of Rs 120 crore in July 2016, saw that drop to Rs 5 crore by July 2017. It reported an operating loss of Rs 120 crore for the quarter ending December 2017.
On February 28, the telecom company stated that the decision by the RBI to do away with the various restructuring schemes triggered its move to file for bankruptcy protection.
Banks with an exposure of Rs 15,500 crore may have to provide for at least 50 per cent losses immediately as per regulatory guidelines.
It is the first company to file for bankruptcy under the RBI’s new norms.
Meanwhile, other telecom service providers like Airtel and Vodafone, are doing brisk business as desperate customers approach them for a new cell phone number.
A customer at the brink of tears said, “I have lost my identity for now. People I do business with will not know where to call me. Imagine my losses.”
Others expressed the same dismay and said they did not know what hit them until they saw the news.
