Bharti takes a $2 bn callMUMBAI: Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, the country’s largest cellular service provider, plans to invest up to $2 billion in its mobile and non-mobile businesses in the country during the current financial year.
In a bid to expand coverage in the rural areas and provide seamless and congestion-free service in the urban areas, it will add 20,000 cell sites during the year, thereby doubling the number of its cell sites.
Sanjay Kapoor, joint president-mobility, Bharti Airtel, told DNA Money, “For the year 2007, the capex for Bharti Airtel will be in the range of $1.8-2 billion across
India, out of which 70% will be on the Airtel mobile business and the remaining on the Airtel non-mobile business.”
Analysts feel that at 10% mobile teledensity, the telecom industry is bound to witness strong subscriber addition for the next few years.
Given its wide geographical coverage and aggressive marketing, Bharti Airtel could be well-placed to tap this growth.
For the first quarter, the Rs 11,290-crore company reported a 13% quarter-on-quarter growth to Rs 3,856 crore, largely driven by the mobility segment that witnessed a growth of 17.7% on account of strong subscriber addition, lower than anticipated fall in average revenue per user and a significant 2% increase in minutes of usage.
Airtel recently launched the InnoWest scheme for its subscribers in Mumbai,
Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Chattisgarh and
Maharashtra and
Goa under which a subscriber visiting these circles would be charged tariffs as applicable in his home circle and no separate roaming rates would be charged.
Source- http://www.dnaindia.com
Technorati : Bharti Airtel, India, Mobile
Ice Rocket : Bharti Airtel, India, Mobile
