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Aditya Birla-controlled Idea Cellular is looking to launch 3G services in the eastern part of the country by the first quarter of next fiscal. Idea, which currently does not have any spectrum licences in the five telecom circles of the east, is looking for an intra-circle roaming (ICR) agreement with two other operators, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.
The eastern region comprises five circles — Kolkata, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and North East. Idea has spectrum licences in 11 of the 22 telecom circles, which are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, UP (East), UP (West), Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Idea Cellular on Monday rolled out its 3G services in different telecom circles of the country. The company has a pan-India subscriber base of 90 million, of which 3.5 million are from the eastern region.
Mr Sudhir Pradhan, chief operating officer, East, told Business Line “We are in the process of finalising agreements with other like-minded operators. Currently we are talking to two operators — Vodafone and Airtel and also vice-versa..”
Bharti Airtel, meanwhile, in an e-mailed response to Business Line confirmed that it was in talks with “other responsible and quality operators” for 3G services in circles where it did not have the licences.
SYNERGY IN OPERATIONS
Saying there was synergy in operations amongst Airtel, Viodafone and Idea, an official of Idea Cellular said the three companies already share telecom towers and are the joint owners of Indus Towers Ltd, which has about 1,10,000 towers. Based on it, Idea was looking for a revenue-sharing agreement with the other operators.
Mr Pradhan said that under an intra-circle roaming agreement, an Idea subscriber will be able to access 3G services through another operator's network. The service will, however, be restricted to subscribers where the company does not have a 3G licence. He did not divulge the revenue sharing details between the companies.
2G ICR WITH VODAFONE
Idea Cellular officials added that currently the company has a 2G intra-circle roaming agreement with Vodafone in West Bengal and Vodafone too has an ICR agreement with Idea in other telecom circles.
Vodafone was not available for comment on the matter.
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