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Rajiv (name changed) is uncertain about his future as an Aircel employee and as a consumer, given the company’s financial difficulties.
He has spent a week desperately trying to port his mobile number to another Airtel or Vodafonem without success.
The company is said to be on the verge of filing for bankruptcy and its employees are uncertain about their future.
“We have read media reports (about a letter from the management warning staff to brace for tough times).
“ Not all employees have received the letter. There is no mail from the HR or the promoters on whether our jobs are safe or not,” Rajiv told BusinessLine, hinting that only senior officials have received the mail mentioned in media reports.
He said more than 5,000 Aircel employees have requested to port their mobile numbers, but none has succeeded in doing so.
Network problem
Another source said that “due to network problem, no porting is possible at the moment”.
With the operator’s own employees struggling hopelessly, the fate of its 85 million customers is a very big concern. On Wednesday, nearly 9 lakh of them tried to port out to other operators. A day earlier, 3 lakh had attempted to port out.
“The company is in really bad shape and it is trying its best to rescue itself from this situation. There are many employees who are on the verge of leaving the company also,” said an official privy to the developments.
The Maxis-owned telecom operator had been struggling for long in the cut-throat telecom market.
Its woes worsened after the launch of Reliance Jio in 2016.
The company, which had a quarterly operating profit of ₹120 crore in July 2016, saw that drop to ₹5 crore in July 2017 and into the red by December 2017, with an operating loss at ₹120 crore.
A Reserve Bank of India circular has stated that loans to Aircel are a non-performing asset for banks.
“Before this ruling, we were trying to fix all things and even the promoters put their efforts into getting some loans from the banks; but nothing is working now other than filing for bankruptcy,” said a company source.
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