CHENNAI: A big chunk of the Rs.11,000 crore investment that Reliance Communications is planning on its wireless telecom services will be in Tamil Nadu, according to a top executive of the company.

The investment in the State would be focussed on adding 5,000 km of optical fibre cable to the company's existing network of 13,000 km and taking the service, which included the fixed wireless connections, to every taluk and highway, said S.P. Shukla, president, personal business, Reliance Communications.

"We want to cover 80 to 90 per cent of the villages ... and when we talk of covering the highways it means not just improving the coverage for those travelling from the cities, but covering the villages on either side," Mr. Shukla told The Hindu during his visit to Chennai recently.

Stating that the project to enhance the coverage would be implemented by September, he said Reliance's telecom service at present was available in all the cities and towns of Tamil Nadu.

Highlight

One of the highlights of the expansion would betaking and improving the service to all places of interest and pilgrimage in the State. This would be in line with the emphasis of Reliance Communications to enable its subscribers to stay in touch wherever they were, something that made it launch the mobile phone and Internet service in Badrinath and Kedarnath recently.

Hub Head-Tamil Nadu and Kerala of the company V.G. Somasekhar said while the service at present was available at all the major pilgrim locations in the State, the expansion would take it to other important places.

Dedicated towers

The company planned to have dedicated towers in all such locations, he added.

Rural telephony market

To a query, Mr. Shukla said the rural telephony market was exploding and people living in the villages were opting for mobile phone connections in a big way.

Given the potential, it was becoming difficult to distinguish between the rural and urban markets, he added.

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