Aircel

Aircel Ltd. stylised as AIRCEL , was an Indian mobile network operator headquartered in Mumbai that offered voice and 2G, 3G and 4G data services. Maxis Communications held a 74% stake and Sindya Securities and Investments held the remaining 26%. Aircel was founded by Chinnakannan Sivasankaran and commenced operations in Tamil Nadu in 1999. It was once a market leader in Tamil Nadu and had considerable presence in Odisha, Assam and North-East telecom circles. 2G and 3G Services including voice were shut down in all circles after failure of merger talks with Reliance Communications.

==History== Aircel was founded by Chinnakannan Sivasankaran from Kovilur village, Cheyyar taluk, Tiruvannamalai district and started its operations in the Tamil Nadu telecom circle in 1999. It became the leading operator in Tamil Nadu and one of the fastest growing mobile operators in India. Malaysian telecom company Maxis Communications bought a 74% stock in the company from Sivasankaran in 2005. The remaining 26% stock is held by Sindya Securities and Investments promoted by Suneeta Reddy, managing director of Apollo Hospitals. In 2012, as a part of a major re-organization in its operations, the company scaled down its operations in five telecom circles, namely Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. On 14 September 2016, Reliance Communications and Aircel announced the merger of their mobile network operations. Following the merger, the joint entity was expected to become India's fourth largest telecom operator in term of consumer base and revenues. A year later, however, both the companies called off the deal citing regulatory and legal issues.