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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (7598)	10/1/1999 8:48:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 12475

Telecom: Spice Blankets 490 villages in Karnataka spiceindia.com Spice Telecom Blankets 490 Villages In Karnataka By our Staff Reporter The importance of good communication in rural development initially came to light a few years ago, when farmers in Himachal Pradesh profited hugely by the presence of STD booths all over the state. Because of this simple facility, farmers were able to establish communications with the big wholesale markets in the cities and find out what prices held for their produce. This way, they were no longer prey to the middleman. In that context alone, the efforts of the cellular phone companies in rural India need special recognition. The comparative ease of expanding cellular networks has enabled a player like Spice Telecom to expand its services to blanket 490 villages and about 33 cities in Karnataka. Spice chief Fergus Wilmer told Bangalore Weekly that Spice's distinction of setting up a 100 cell sites across the state is something of national importance. "(Karnataka is) the best served state in the country," he explained, "the network spreads across 14 districts covering 68% of Karnataka's urban area and 80% of the state?s urban population." With the recent commissioning of the optic fibre 'backbone' to the west coast, their total investment exceeded Rs 600 crores (US$133 million). The subscriber base of Spice is more than 60,000 (according to the company, this makes it the biggest cell phone provider in the region). Over 600,000 calls are processed every day. Another milestone claimed by the company is that the average monthly air-time usage of their service is 317 minutes, which they say, is amongst the highest in the country. Spice plans to cover 8 more cities in Karnataka by December 2000.