The Hindu Business Line : Tata Tele to invest Rs 445 cr more in AP circle

Mr. Prabhat Pani, Chief Operating Officer, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka circle, Tata Teleservices Ltd, surfing the Net through `Plug and Surf' system after the press conference in Hyderabad on Friday. This is a wireless Internet service provided by the company with the 3G technology that enables high speed access and downloads. TTSL provides free ISP kit in the package. - - A. Roy Chowdhury

Hyderabad , June 25

TATA Teleservices has unveiled plans to invest Rs 445 crore in the Andhra Pradesh circle this year to expand its network to 166 towns, up from 21 now and double its subscriber base from close to 5 lakh now.

The Chief Operating Officer of Tata Teleservices for Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Mr Prabhat Pani, said, "We have entered the expansion mode and the phase-wise growth would see us setting up a pan - circle footprint. This would mean setting up over 300 new high-capacity cell sites to strengthen the network and boost coverage and capacity in the State."

The expansion would be funded through internal accruals and part-funded by financial institutions.

"Tata Teleservices has invested about Rs 2,000 crore in both licence and telecom infrastructure, including 1950 km of optical fibre cable network over the last few years. This additional investment by December 2004 will go into network expansion and coverage of towns in the three corridors of the State. In other areas, we would adopt a cluster development concept wherein subscribers in the region benefit," Mr Pani said in a press conference.

Detailing the business plan, Mr Pani said, "Apart from individual subscribers, we are also looking to address the demands of enterprises with custom-designed solutions as was the case with Hyderabad Police for its video surveillance network and with Hindustan Shipyard, Vizag, wherein a combination of fixed wireline, fixed wireless and mobile services were offered."

Tata Teleservices, which commenced operations from Andhra Pradesh, has 4,80,000 subscribers with fixed wireless, fixed wireline and mobile services accounting for about one-third apiece.

"We expect to double this number this year with aggressive roll out of services. Hitherto, we had a relatively limited presence in the Telangana and Rayalaseema regions. With this expansion of network, we would be able to tap the potential out there," he explained.

This investment would mean increase in services from 21 to 166 towns, 169 to 478 cell sites and capacity of 4,12,707 to 11,20,296 touching about 27 per cent of the State's population.

"With the unified license regime in place, and mobile product a critical element in the company business plan, we are now in a position to provide end-to-end solutions, which means both rapid growth of subscriber base as also increase in revenues.

"We foresee a very encouraging response to our service in the new towns we plan to enter. The growth of the backbone would continue but we will also take advantage of the network of group companies such as VSNL," Mr Pani said.

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