Aircel, which not-so-long-ago, was among the top mobile phone service providersin India is currently in news but not for goods reasons. There are plenty of news floating around. So what’s really happening?
The company has already filed for bankruptcy in NCLT or National Company Law Tribunal is a quasi-judicial body in India that adjudicates issues relating to companies in India. The move came after Aircel failed to recast its Rs 15,500 crore debt despite being in negotiation with companies since September last year.
Maxis, which had invested over $7 billion in over a decade, has refused to more money into Aircel. This forced Aircel to shut its shop forever. The crisis started after many tower vendors stopped offering services for non-payment of dues. Later an RBI circular terming Aircel’s debts as non-performing assets precipitated the issue.
In many circles, people are now complaining that they are not getting any signals on Aircel network. Aircel has also reportedly told its staff to brace for difficult times ahead. To add to the woes of customers, many reported that they are not being able to port out.
Idea had earlier suspended interconnectivity services with Aircel.The company has 85 million customers. At the time of writing, Aircel’s website was also not working. Most likely the authorities will now ask the operator to allow customers to port out, as they did in the case of Reliance Communications. Recently a court had also asked RCom to repay the customers who were not able to port out and have money in their account.
Hopefully, Aircel will soon repay its customers who have already recharged their accounts and arrange for a smooth port out.