Indian Operator Outlines Expansion Plans

India's Bharti Tele-Ventures has announced its "Mega Expansion" plan to connect over 2300 towns in the year 2004-05. The new plan includes Bharti rolling out its mobile services in 6 more circles i.e. J&K, UP-East, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Rajasthan thus expanding its national footprint from 15 to 21 circles. To service the telecom needs of its fast growing customer base, in-addition to network expansion, Bharti would also be scaling up its existing network capacities across all its circles.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Manoj Kohli, President Mobility, Bharti Tele-Ventures, said, " AirTel, has always been a company driven by vision, with a strong focus on providing customer value with care, trust and innovation. AirTel, which connects over 6 million customers, is now embarking on an aggressive expansion plan which involves increasing network capacities, introducing new technologies, strengthening the spread and depth of coverage and adding a host of other state-of-the-art software platforms in all its 15 existing circles and also in the 6 new circles."

AirTel plans to expand its mobile services to 1000 new towns during the year 2004-05, out of which 300 towns would be added in the 6 new circles taking the final count to 2300 towns in 21 circles.

Besides the urban areas, the rural sector too is set to benefit from AirTel's "MEGA" expansion drive. AirTel would provide mobile connectivity to 20,000 new villages across the 21 circles during the coming year.

To cater to the fast growing mobile base of AirTel in the country, AirTel will be scaling up its capacity to cater to the needs of more than 11 million subscribers by the end of the year. AirTel currently has a subscriber base in excess of 6.2 million. The AirTel network currently manages more than 2 billion call minutes every month and with the scaling up of the capacity, it will be able to manage upto 4 billion call minutes.

During the coming year, AirTel on a national scale plans to double its cell site count from 5000 to approximately 10,000. On the other end, 18 additional Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs) would also be installed taking the total count to 53.

AirTel will also be sharing mobile infrastructure with other service providers for a more effective and efficient utilization of resources. Such strategic tie-ups will result in saving of capital and operational expenses as well as time to roll out services. Lower costs of roll out translate into lower service costs for subscribers."

Posted to the site on 29th March 2004