The Hindu : Bharti gets five more phone licences

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 12, 2004

Business

Business

Bharti gets five more phone licences

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB 11. Bharti Tele-Ventures (BTVL), the country's leading cellular company, today signed and received five unified access licences for providing GSM technology based cellular services in Uttar Pradesh (East), West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar, Orissa, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir. The licence has been granted to Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL), the cellular arm and subsidiary of BTVL.

"With these new licences, we are all set to further expand our footprint in the country. While we expect to receive the licence for Rajasthan shortly, we are well on our way to launch GSM services in these five circles in the second quarter of the next fiscal. This is in keeping with our commitment to build an unmatched telecom infrastructure in this country,'' said a company news release quoting the Bharti group chief, Sunil Mittal. The company had applied for the licences as part of its plan to become a truly all-India service provider of phone services. At present, its services cover most areas with high revenue earning potential but the company is absent from many areas where purchasing power was considered weak by telecom analysts. This strategy was proved wrong when the state run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) launched its services in every nook and corner of the country and logged an impressive number of customers. With BSNL poised to expand its network and Reliance launching its pre-paid card, Bharti too is putting its plans in motion. Earlier this week it had contracted Swedish telecom major Ericsson for making its network more reliable and efficient.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business