Idea Cellular enters Tamil Nadu; to invest Rs 1,000 cr

Idea Cellular, one of the leading telecom operators in the country, entered Tamil Nadu, with the launch of its GSM mobile services in 130 towns across the state.

With this launch, Idea, an Aditya Birla Group company, will now cover nearly 90 per cent of the telephony potential of India, Himanshu Kapania, director-operations, Idea Cellular, told reporters here.     

Stating that the company has launched its services in most of the main towns of Tamil Nadu, including Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem, Tirupur, Erode and Vellore, Himanshu said that the service in Chennai Metro would be launched soon.     

The company's investment for expanding its footprint in Tamil Nadu would be about Rs 1,000 crore by March 2011, he said.     

With 25 per cent of its overall subscriber base coming from three areas of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Idea plans to set up a network of 2,400 cell sites by March 2010, which would be increased to 2,600 sites by March 2011.     

On national plans, Himanshu said that the company would have pan-India presence by the end of this year, with services being launched in West Bengal and Kolkata, Assam and North Eastern states.     

However, there was no specific plans for acquisition at present, Himanshu said.