Aircel to invest Rs 650 cr in Punjab

After investing about Rs 350 crore to launch its GSM (Global System for Mobile) services in Punjab, GSM mobile service provider Aircel has further plans to inject Rs 650 crore in Punjab by the end of 2011, for rolling out new services and expanding the base.

The investment would be made under heads including expansion of 3G services in the state, expansion of retail presence and infrastructure, and introduction of new VAS.

Speaking to Business Standard, Aircel Chief Operating Officer Gurdeep Singh said: “We have already invested Rs 350 crore in Punjab and by the end of 2011, the total investment in the state would be to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore by the end of 2011. We have plans to roll out 3G services in Punjab by the end of this year. Besides, we have plans to increase our retail presence. Also, the total number of cell sites would touch 3,600 from 2,000 at present.”

With a subscriber base of over 40 million, the company, which was the fifth-largest service provider, extended its services all across Punjab today, becoming the eighth GSM player in Punjab. The company plans to roll its GSM services in Gujarat in this month and next month to Rajasthan. It is worth mentioning that the telecom density in Punjab is 70 per cent which is highest in India.

The state has seven GSM players namely – Airtel, BSNL, Idea, Vodafone, Tata Docomo, Reliance, Videocon, besides three CDMA players namely — Tata Teleservices, Reliance and HFCL Connect.

On being asked about the strategy to penetrate deeper into the market, he added: “We are going to target youth, small- and medium- enterprises (SMEs) and non-resident Indians. To address the needs of customers in Punjab, the company introduces a Business Pack for SME’s with unlimited community calling and Data @Rs 199/Rs 499/Rs999 for one, three and six months respectively, offering free local Aircel to Aircel calls & sms and to others 2 45 paise. This is inclusive of free stock updates. We will be introducing products and services tailored to meet the special needs of the Punjab customers. We have introduced a value plan with inbuilt VAS & Data which @ Rs 123 gives unlimited pocket internet surfing for a month and unlimited dialer tunes offering downloads at no extra cost.”