Tata Teleservices Outlines $2 Billion CAPEX During 2009-10

Published on: 20th April 2009

India's Tata Teleservices has earmarked a US$2 billion CAPEX for the current financial year to expand its GSM network nationwide. The operator already has a CDMA network, but is planning a GSM overlay after the government granted it permission to operate both technologies on a single license.

Last year, Tata announced plans to spend around Rs80 billion (US$2 billion) over two years on expanding both its GSM and CDMA networks. Various media reports at the time said that about Rs60 billion would be spent on the new GSM network the company is building, with the remaining Rs20 billion going on its existing CDMA network.

Japan's DoCoMo recently took a 26% stake in the firm for US$2.7 billion.

"We have a capex (plan) of USD two billion for the current fiscal (2009-10) for launching GSM services. The service will be launched in a few weeks," TTSL MD Anil Sardana told the Economic Times at the company's launch of a value-added service. The company has been allocated radio spectrum in all of India's license circles, excepting the Delhi Metro area.

Tata Managing Director Anil Sardana recently said that the company was targeting a CDMA subscriber base of 100 million by 2011, by which time it expected to have 55 million new users on its GSM platform.

Figures from the Mobile World subscriber tracker report that Tata Teleservices ended last year with just under 31.8 million customers - and a market share of 9.2%.

Alcatel-Lucent recently won a seven-year contract from Tata Teleservices to expand their CDMA /GSM network in 22 states pan India, covering close to 60 million subscribers. No financial details were provided though - or any indication of the scale of the contract.

On the web: Economic Times - Mobile World

 

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