Idea Cellular Limited was incorporated in 1995. The company is among the top four mobile telephony players in India with an 11 per cent all-India subscribers market share. More importantly, it ranks third in terms of wireless revenue market share at 13.6 per cent.

Idea ranks second with 23.6-per cent revenue market share in nine service areas where it holds 900 MHz spectrum and which derive about 41 per cent of the industry’s all-India revenues (based on gross revenues for UAS and Mobile licenses only, for March 2011 quarter, as released by TRAI).  

The market positioning of Idea reflects the strength of its brand considering the fact that Idea added 11 out of its total 22 service areas in the past four years. Today, it is a pan-India player with commercial 2G operations in 22 service areas, and 3G in nine of these circles. Its subscriber base has grown multifold, from 7.37 million in March 2006 to 89.5 million in March 2011.    

Idea holds 16 per cent stake in Indus Towers, a joint venture with other telecom majors Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. Indus Towers is the world's largest tower company with over one lakh towers. In 2007, Idea was listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Idea enjoys a market leadership position in many of its operational areas. It offers GPRS on all its operating networks for all categories of subscribers, and was the first company in India to commercially launch the next generation EDGE technology in Delhi in 2003. As a pioneer in technology deployment, it has been at the forefront through the adoption of bio fuels to power its base stations, and by employing satellite connectivity to reach inaccessible rural areas in Madhya Pradesh.