Idea Cellular is on song Wednesday morning, with the stock gaining over 12% to Rs 115.50, on hectic buying after the company introduced a new scheme called ‘Idea Select’ for both prepaid and postpaid customers. The stock, which rose to Rs 115.50, is currently up 8.7% at Rs 112, not far off from a 52-week high of Rs 128.35 it had touched on 28 April 2016. The stock has moved up on pretty strong volumes, with the counter on the National Stock Exchange recording a volume of around 33.5 million shares so far in the session. On BSE, around 3.31 million shares have changed hands at the counter so far, more than twice its average daily turnover in the last two weeks.The country’s third largest telecom player’s new scheme offers special privileges to customers enrolling for the plan. Customers enrolling for Idea Select will get advanced support from the customer care executive and at the customer care centres as well. The users will be given exclusive offers on monthly usage on voice, SMS, and data, also they won’t be required to give security deposits for international roaming and international calling, said the company.Idea Cellular has tied up with e-commerce merchants to provide special deals for the Select customers.However, the scheme has criteria for postpaid users to be eligible for it where they are required to be the customer of Idea Postpaid for at least six months along with a minimum bill of Rs 3000 per month and timely bill payments. Idea Select plans – four in number – come with different minimum bill requirements.Idea Select Titanium, Idea Select Platinum, Idea Select Gold, and Idea Select Silver are the four plans introduced by the telco. Idea Select Titanium offers the most benefits and is the premium of all, followed by Platinum, Gold and Silver plans.Meanwhile, reports indicate that the mega-merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular may be officially announced this week. The merger will see the two companies holding an equal stake and result in Vodafone de-consolidating its India arm. Post merger, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular would together create a new entity that will be able to compete with Reliance Jio, which has already triggered a price war in the telecom segment.
July 26, 2024
