MTS India to enter new circles, targets 30 mn users

MTS India, mobile telephony brand of Sistema Shyam TeleServices,  would be a pan-India operator by next year, a top company official said today.

"Currently we are present in 11 circles, very soon we will be entering new circles like Andhra Pradesh", Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd Chief Operating Officer (Tamil Nadu and Kerala) Srinivasa Rao Saripalli told reporters here.
 
The company currently has four million customers across the country and has set a target of  reaching 30 million customers by 2012. About $1.5 billion have been invested."Of the $1.5 billion, Rs 350 crore has been invested in Tamil Nadu and Kerala alone", he said.
 
On the data services platform (MBlaze) which the company launched last year, he said the company has seen seen additions of 5,000-10,000 (subscribers) over the last three months.

"In Tamil Nadu alone we have 35,000 data service subscribers", he said.
 
MTS would also enter into Post-Paid services in May this year Saripalli, here to announce a range of services as part of their first anniversary celebrations, said.
 
In view of this MTS Subscribers can avail free calls from MTS to MTS customers across India and can freely download from data services for 24 hours today. A range of features like 27 service packs for MBlaze offering free usage from 250Mb upto 180 GB were also announced on the occasion.
 
Sistema Shyam Teleservices is a joint venture between Sistema of Russia and Shyam Group of India. Sistema is the majority share holder with a 74 per cent stake while Shyam Group holds 23.5 per cent.