MTS aims at break-even in 2 Bengal circles by mid-2014

The key driver will be data on both dongle and smartphones, says MTS India COO Sandeep Marwaha

Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL), the leading CDMA telecom operator with the MTS brand, is aiming to break-even by mid-2014 calender year for two circles in West Bengal with expectation to double revenue from data services.

"For the rest of Bengal we have already achieved break- even in the last few months. But, combined with Kolkata circle we expect to achieve break-even in mid-2014," MTS India COO (Kolkata & WB) Sandeep Marwaha said.

"The key driver will be data on both dongle and smartphones. Voice revenues seem to saturated," he said on the sidelines of announcement of 23 new towns on high speed data (HSD) network.

Marwaha said with new spectrum of 3.75 Mhz, the data bandwidth capacity would jump by almost 50% for the company.

Currently, the operator covers 33 town under HSD, including Kolkata.

MTS claimed to enjoy a data customer base of 1.5 lakh that generated close to 30% of the total revenue of both circles.

Marwaha said the company has always focused on data services and is offering dongle at Rs 1,100 and a few double sim (CDMA+GSM) based phones to acquire new customers.

Asked about the proposed plan for Rev B network which is already in use in Jaipur, Marwaha said currently the focus is on putting existing coverage under high speed data with the new version to be rolled out at an appropriate time.