Airtel launches Orissa service

Bharti Cellular Ltd, a subsidiary of Bharti Tele-Ventures, one of India's leading telecom conglomerate, today launched the Airtel mobile service in Orissa. With this Airtel has become the first private mobile service to offer seamless coverage in the state.

Airtel's coverage spreads over 1200 kms of highway, rail routes and in over 100 towns within the state riding on 140 cell sites. The company proposes to offer its customers in Orissa all innovative value added services, which are available elsewhere in the country.

The company has invested Rs 100 crore for building the infrastructure to launch the mobile services in the state and intends to increase the investments to Rs 150 crore by middle of next year.

Speaking on the occasion, Sunil Mittal, chairman and group managing director, Bharti Enterprise, said Airtel has been adjudged the best mobile service provider in the sub-continent by Asia Mobile News and is the country's largest GSM mobile service by virtue of a customer base of over 9.4 million.

He said, Airtel in Orissa will provide more choice to customers and herald the beginning of a new era in this field. With the launch of service in Orissa, Bharti's mobile footprint now extends to 20 out of the 23 mobile circles in the country.

Airtel plans to launch its services across eastern India, covering 260 million people in 12 states. After having successfully launched its services in the West Bengal circle in October 2004, Airtel gearing up to launch its services in Bihar and Jharkahnd in January 2005 and in Assam and North East by March 2005.

"Across the country Airtel has played a key role in increasing teledensity by catalysing the growth of the mobile telephony segment. Airtel also stands for a unique service experience and world-class customer care. The eastern region of the country including Orissa has a huge potential for improvement in mobile penetration, which in turn will trigger an overall growth of the economy. The launch of Airtel in Orissa will go a long way in establishing these objectives", Mittal said.

Deepak Gulati, chief executive officer-eastern region, BhartiCellular Ltd said, Airtel is set to redefine the existing benchmarks of the mobile service category in Orissa.

"We will bring to our customers here the same unmatched network quality and outstanding value that has made Airtel the preferred choice of millions of customers across the country", he added.