Tata Teleservices to Spend $743 Mln on Phone
Networks (Update1)
By Abhay Singh
New Delhi, Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Tata Teleservices Ltd., the fixed-line phone
services unit of India's Tata Group, plans to spend as much as 35 billion
rupees ($743 million) over the next five years to build networks after winning
government licenses.
On Friday, the company signed agreements with the Indian government to
offer services in the states of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and the city of
New Delhi, it said in a statement. It already offers phone connections in the
state of Andhra Pradesh.
The licenses will allow the company to expand its network and gain fixed-line
phone customers. India has fewer than three phones for every 100 people
compared with a world average of about 15.
The government expects state-owned incumbent Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
and private players such as Tata and Hughes Tele.com Ltd. to raise that
number to seven per 100 by 2005.
Tata Teleservices may partner Hughes Tele.com, the fixed-line phone operator
in the state of Maharashtra, to create a network that spans some of the
largest states in central and southern India, the statement said.
The new licenses will also allow the company to offer limited- range mobile
services using Qualcomm Inc.'s Code Division Multiple Access technology. It
expects to roll out services in the four regions by June next year and has
asked the government for time till Oct. 1 to sign licenses for five more states of
Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, the statement said.
The Tata Group is also present in the mobile services market through its stake
in a consortium consisting of India's Aditya Birla Group, BPL Cellular Holdings
Ltd. and AT&T Corp. The company is the largest mobile phone operator in
India with almost a third of the 4.3 million mobile phone users in the country.
GSM, or the Global System for Mobile communications, is the prevalent
standard for wireless telephony in the country. |
