AirTel to dial 95 new towns in Andhra

Launches enhanced data rate for global evolution network in Andhra Pradesh

Leading private mobile operator AirTel, promoted by Bharti Cellular Limited, plans to expand its network to 95 more towns in Andhra Pradesh by the end of November.

Addressing a press conference to announce the launch of EDGE (enhanced data rate for global evolution) in Andhra Pradesh, K Srinivas, CEO of Bharti Cellular Limited, Andhra Pradesh, said: "At the beginning of the year, we had our network in 220 towns and by the end of November we plan to increase it to around 315 towns across the state."

According to Srinivas, there are approximately 550 towns (above the population of 10,000) in the state. "In the last one month we have added around 41 new towns in the various parts of the state. We expect to cover almost all the 550 towns in the state by the end of the current financial year," he said.

AirTel currently has a subscriber base of eight lakh customers in the state and has a market share of around 34 per cent in the GSM segment.

AirTel, which is present in 19 circles across the country, would be rolling out its service in four new circles in Orissa, Bihar, North East and Assam taking the tally to 23 circles.

The company has earmarked Rs 10,000 crore for the expansion programme. "Out of the total allocation, around 8-10 per cent would be spent on the expansion plans in the state," Srinivas said.

Speaking about the EDGE (enhanced data rate for global evolution) network in the state, he said, "With transfer speeds as high as 200 kbps, customers would be able to experience rich multi-media content including live television."

The company also launched Blackberry, another first in global business mobile communications. This initiative provides customers with a secure, integrated and innovative wireless access solution.

EDGE-enabled services would be available on EDGE ready handsets and as an introductory offer the company is launching it with a monthly rental of Rs 600. Apart from watching live television, multi player mobile gaming, music and file transfers, picture downloads and e-mail downloads with attachments are possible with this technology.

Four channels are already available on the technology and the company is in talks with other channels to add to their bouquet.

"The deployment strategy started out with Chandigarh and is now available in Pune, Bangalore and Delhi. As part of the phase I rollout plan, the technology will be subsequently launched in Ludhiana, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Jaipur, Lucknow and Coimbatore," Srinivas said.