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Mr Manoj Kohli (left), President-Mobility, Bharti Tele-Ventures, and Mr Jagadish Kini, CEO and Director - South Central Region, Bharti Cellular, at the launch of the AirTel EDGE in Bangalore on Friday. - G.R.N. Somashekar

Bangalore , Sept. 17

THE mobile service provider, Bharti, on Friday announced the launch of EDGE technology for its customers in Bangalore and said it enables faster data transfer.

The Bharti Tele-Ventures President for mobility services, Mr Manoj Kohli, told newspersons that through EDGE (enhanced data rate for global evolution) technology, customers can download rich multimedia content faster than even those achieved by CDMA.

Bharti Cellular's Chief Executive Officer and Director for South central region, Mr Jagdish Kini, said the subscription base in Karnataka had crossed the 1-million mark. He said it took AirTel nearly three years to have a subscriber base of around half-a-million. The next half-a-million was crossed in a mere one year.

Karnataka is the third State after Delhi and Punjab in AirTel's network to cross the 1-million mark, while Bangalore is the third city after Chandigarh and Pune to get the EDGE technology. This application will be rolled out in Delhi, Mumbai and other cities soon.

The Bharti Tele-Ventures Chief Technology Officer, Mr Don Price, said Bharti is expected to get two additional packets of 1,800 MGH of spectrum in another four weeks to six weeks.

He said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had decided to give additional spectrum to all those mobile operators whose subscriber base crossed the 1-million mark.

Mr Kini said another 90 towns in Karnataka would be added to the network by November. He said the Bharti's board was likely to take a decision on increasing the network further. Currently, 160 towns in Karnataka are networked.

He said Bangalore would be Wi-Fi enabled soon. He said the company had already exhausted Rs 300 crore investment earmarked for this fiscal for Karnataka. Of this, Rs 200 crore was earmarked for Bangalore alone.

AirTel has a total subscriber base of around 8.5 million in the country. It operates in 17 circles while six more circles will be added this fiscal. Bharti has invested around Rs 10,000 crore in mobile services so far and has a 26 per cent share of the GSM market.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | New Products & Services | Karnataka

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