Aircel to invest $5 bn in 4 years

Aircel has invested close to $2 billion in its Indian operations so far with $500 million in 2007 alone. It aims to double the investments by 2009. Aircel has 7,000 towers across the country and aims to set up 15,000 more.

Sandip Das, chief executive officer, Maxis Communications, said, "We are looking to introduce several value-added services in India that we have already rolled out in other countries. For instance, multimedia messaging or value-added-services built around SMSes is one area we are strongly exploring for the Indian market. These are available in Malaysia right now."

"We will launch special schemes and tariffs for rural and urban India," he added. Maxis currently operates in Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka.

The firm also plans to create international long distance property with value-added services connecting the four countries that it operates in currently. In India, the company also plans to take its branded outlets to a total of 900 this year from 400. Aircel launched its pre-paid GSM operations in Kolkata today.

In the next three months, Aircel plans to roll out its post-payment schemes in Kolkata. Currently, Aircel has close to 550 cell sites in Kolkata, which the company would increase to 1,000 by September. Aircel aims to roll out its WiMax services for corporate clients and plans to launch Blackberry services in two-three months.

Aircel currently operates in nine circles, including Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Assam, North East, Orissa, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal.

Aircel is a joint venture between Maxis Communications of Malaysia and Apollo Hospital Enterprise of India, with Maxis holding 74 per cent stake.