APTel plans 20 new training centres

APTel Business Solutions (India), a Gurgaon-based provider of telecom network infrastructure solutions, will be opening 20 centres for telecom technology training and capability enhancement across the country shortly.

Announcing the launch of its first centre in south India at Hyderabad on Monday, APTel managing director Anuj Gupta said each of these centres, which will be in addition to the existing five, will entail an investment of Rs 30 lakh.

“The Hyderabad centre will offer advanced diploma and a diploma in telecommunications, to start with. Post the completion of these three-month and six-month programmes, students will be placed as base terminal station engineers and tower technicians respectively,” he said.

Stating that the company was in the process of launching a BSc in telecommunications programme in due course, Gupta said post the completion of the programme, the students would be treated on a par with BE or B Tech from the point of the industry.

“This full-time dual degree programme will have components like 100 per cent placement assurance. While US-based Cambridge Intercontinental University, with which we already have an academic alliance, will offer a BSc, the Annamalai University will offer a BBA (bachelor of business administration),” he said.

With 653 million subscribers, the Indian telecom industry is today the fastest growing in the world and ranks second in terms of telecom network infrastructure.

Estimates are that by 2013, India is set to have the largest subscriber base in the world. This consistent growth by almost 45 per cent a year has lead to a huge demand for 0.29 million skilled and trained telecom professionals every year.