The Hindu Business Line : Vodafone Essar investing $6 b more to expand

New Delhi, Jan. 21 Vodafone Essar will invest $6 billion over the next three years in a bid to increase its mobile subscriber base from 40 million at present to over 100 million. The company is on the verge of getting licences for 6 more circles, which will make it a pan Indian mobile operator.

Vodafone is now the third largest mobile operator in the country after Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication. The company had earlier said that it was aiming to be the number one operator in the country.

“We shall be investing $2 billion annually for the next three years on our Indian operations. We have set a target of reaching 100 million subscriber base from the current level of 40 million,” UK-based telecom giant Vodafone’s CEO, Mr Arun Sarin, said here on Monday.

When asked about the funding of investments, he said the investments would be made from Vodafone’s treasury.

Spectrum issue

On the spectrum allocation policy, Mr Sarin said, “We hope the issue will be resolved at the earliest. Spectrum and the capital expenditure go hand in hand. We have presented our views to the Indian government. We are very positive.”

Mr Sarin also sought to clarify his views on the Indian regulatory scenario saying that Vodafone’s entry into the country has been a good one. “The experience in India has been very good. India is on a roll and we are happy to be rolling with India,” he said.

It was earlier reported that Mr Sarin had made remarks expressing concern at the way Indian authorities had handled Vodafone’s buyout of Hutchison Telecom’s stake in Hutchison Essar.

Speaking at a function at IIT here attended by the UK Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown, Mr Sarin said the Vodafone deal was cleared in three months’ time and added that contrary to the impression that it is difficult to do business here, there are a lot of things which are easy to do in India as compared to the rest of the world.