The Hindu Business Line : Bharti set on Rs 4,000-cr network expansion

BHARTI Televentures Ltd plans to invest Rs 4,000 crore this fiscal in network expansion across 23 circles. It is set to double its base stations from the present 10,000 to 20,000 and expand to 5000 towns and cities from about 2,800 now.

This massive effort would mean that the company that created about 10,000 stations in about 10 years would effectively double them by the end of this year to create a pan-India footprint. All towns with more than 10,000 population would be covered, according to the senior management of Bharti Televentures.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday to announce Airtel's expansion plans, the President of Mobility, Bharti Televentures, Mr Manoj Kohli, said South India had become a key market for growth with three circles out of four Bharti operates having about one million users. Tamil Nadu was likely to join this group shortly.

Bharti was forging ahead not just in mobile services but was also eyeing the broadband market with services in 50 towns, Mr Kohli said.

"Value-added services have become an important aspect of revenue generation and now range between 15 and 20 per cent of the revenues in larger cities. This compares well with some of the mature markets," Mr Atul Bindal, who is set to take over from Mr Jagdish Kini shortly as head of South, said.

Maharashtra minus Mumbai and Andhra Pradesh had emerged as two of the fastest growing markets in the South. Given the current low tariffs and cheaper handsets, the market, which had temporarily slowed down, had again grown by about 2.5 million last month and this trend was likely to continue, he said.

"Give the current rate of growth in the cellular segment, we believe that India will be able to far outpace the targeted numbers of 215 million by 2010," Mr Kohli said.

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