The Hindu Business Line : AirTel earmarks Rs 150-200 cr for rollout in Orissa, Bihar

AIRTEL has earmarked an investment of Rs 150-200 crore for its cellular rollout in the Orissa and Bihar telecom circles. The Bihar Telecom Circle has within its purview the State of Jharkhand as well.

Speaking to presspersons while on a visit to the city to inaugurate `India's first mobile technology experience center' here today, the Joint Managing Director of Bharti Tele-Ventures, Mr Rajan Bharti Mittal, said the company's cellular rollout in these two telecom circles would take off within the next few months. The company's cellular operations in the Assam Telecom Circle, too, would take off in the current financial year.

The company had initiated market surveys in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshwadeep, where it proposes to launch cellular operations. The Andaman & Nicobar Islands is part of the West Bengal Telecom Circle, which comprises the whole of West Bengal excluding Kolkata and the state of Sikkim.

Mr Mittal presented a case for increased foreign direct investment in the domestic telecom sector and said this would be necessary if the country were to witness the "next wave" in the domestic telecommunications arena. On the company's secondary offering of sponsored ADRs, he said no firm decision had yet been taken in the matter.

According to Mr Mittal, AirTel has a 25 per cent share of the country's cellular market. Its share of the domestic cellular revenue was, however, higher than its market share. The company was in the process of identifying select towns and cities in India where end-to-end wired and wireless telecom services would be offered to corporate customers.

Earlier, Mr Mittal inaugurated a mobile technology centre that is aimed at providing customers with first-hand demonstration of cutting edge mobile technology. Similar experience centres would also be rolled out in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore in the days ahead.

At these experience centres, customers would be able to witness technology demonstrations such as Live TV on Edge, Airtel Live services, SMS-based appliance control system for handling electronics, vehicle tracking system, touch screen kiosks, etc.

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