The Hindu Business Line : Karnataka tops in Airtel connections

BHARTI Tele-Ventures on Tuesday announced that Airtel has crossed the 20-lakh mobile subscribers mark in the State. At the end of 2005, there were 18.39 lakh Airtel subscribers in Delhi, and 17.28 lakh in Karnataka. The State raced ahead to reach the 2-million mark and is now followed closely by Delhi and Andhra Pradesh in the maximum number of subscribers.

Though a large percentage of subscribers are from Bangalore, the company is now seeing an increased number of connections from smaller towns and villages in the State.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Atul Bindal, Executive Director Southern Hub, (Mobility), Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, said, "We are picking up a healthy percentage of subscribers from Mysore, Gulbarga and Mangalore. This is the side of business we will continue to invest in."

Bharti has invested Rs 800 crore in network infrastructure in the State till date. Now, funds will be funnelled into improving the quality of the network in the top 5-6 towns and customer services, said Mr Bindal. The operator will expand to reach 700 towns in the State by March.

The operator will invest in IT systems in call centres to ensure that "the call centre executive should be able to close your query immediately", according to Mr Bindal. He also said that they would work on reducing the number of repeat calls.

In a report in August last, the Cellular Operators Association of India said that Karnataka recorded the highest average revenue per unit (ARPU) at Rs 466 followed by Gujarat at Rs 420. Airtel Karnataka had an ARPU of Rs 498.16 in June 05, followed by Hutch with an ARPU of Rs 468.61.

The company currently covers over 465 towns with close to 1,400 cell sites. It has 30,000 retail outlets and 130 Airtel Relationship Centres across the State.