Vodafone Essar, formally known as Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that covers 23 telecom circles in India based in Mumbai. Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 67% and Essar Group 33%. It is the second largest mobile phone operator in terms of revenue behind Bharti Airtel, and third largest in terms of customers. As of June 31, 2009 Vodafone India has 18.8% customer market share and 20.7% revenue market share.
On February 11, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, pipping Reliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion. The transaction closed on May 8, 2007. Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are simply branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India with good presence in the metros.
Vodafone Essar provides 2.75G services based on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice and data services in 23 of the country's 23 licence areas. It is among the top three GSM mobile operators of India.
Previous brands
Initially around 1995 it was called "MAX TOUCH"...then around 2000 it was ORANGE..... In December 2006, Hutch Essar re-launched the "Hutch" brand nationwide, consolidating its services under a single identity. The Company entered into an agreement with NTT DoCoMo to launch i-mode mobile Internet service in India during 2007.
The company used to be named Hutchison Essar, reflecting the name of its previous owner, Hutchison. However, the brand was marketed as Hutch. After getting the necessary government approvals with regards to the acquisition of a majority by the Vodafone Group, the company was rebranded as Vodafone Essar. The marketing brand was officially changed to Vodafone on 20 September 2007.
On September 20, 2007 Hutch became Vodafone in one of the biggest brand transition exercises in recent times.
Vodafone Essar is spending somewhere in the region of Rs. 250 crores on this high-profile transition being unveiled today.Along with the transition, cheap cell phones have been launched in the Indian market under the Vodafone brand. The company also plans to launch co-branded handsets sourced from global vendors as well.
A popular daily quoted a Vodafone Essar director as saying that "the objective is to leverage Vodafone Group's global scale in bringing millions of low-cost handsets from across-the-world into India."
Incidentally, China's ZTE, which is looking to set-up a manufacturing unit in the country, is expected to provide several Vodafone handsets in India. Earlier this year, Vodafone penned a global low-cost handset procurement deal with ZTE.
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