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Our Bureau

Airtel plans to reach 85 per cent of Karnataka's population, up from the 74 per cent this year.

NEW MILESTONE: (From right) Mr Yatish Mehrotra, COO, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Karnataka; Mr Deepak Mehrotra, Director-South, Mobility, and Mr Venkatesh V, CEO, Mobile Services, at a press conference in Bangalore on Monday. — G R N Somashekar

Bangalore May 7 Karnataka has overtaken Andhra Pradesh in rural connectivity.

"Andhra Pradesh is a few points behind Karnataka in the southern region when it comes to rural coverage," said Mr Venkatesh V, CEO, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel, Karnataka, while speaking on network expansion plans in the State.

Currently, about 61.3 per cent of rural population is covered by Airtel's network and 5,500 out of 5,682 gram panchayats are covered. Compared to this, 99.7 per cent of urban Karnataka has access to mobile network.

ARPU (average revenue per user) in rural areas is about 25 per cent lower than that of urban users, but we are noticing increased growth in number of add-ons from villages and towns, said Mr Deepak Mehrotra, Director - South, Mobility, Bharti Airtel. "Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are high on our national priority with regard to investment," he added.

The operator hopes to have all highways and railroads in the State under its network. . Now, about 2250 km of highways and 1425 km of railroads in Karnataka are covered. From April 2006, till March this year, 4.4 million people joined the mobile networks in Karnataka. Of this, half have chosen Airtel, claims the operator.

Market share

Bharti Airtel has about 4.27 million customers in Karnataka. Its market share in the State is now 38 per cent. Airtel plans to reach 85 per cent of the State's population, up from the current 74 per cent this year. It also hopes to have 60,000 outlets selling various Airtel products this year, up from 47,000 now.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Rural Development | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd

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Karnataka ahead of AP in rural connectivity: Airtel

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