HFCL to expand in Punjab, reaches 1 m subscribers in 80 days

Punjab-based HFCL Infotel Ltd, a business venture of the HFCL Group, which launched its CDMA services in Punjab and Chandigarh under the brand name 'Ping', has touched a subscriber base of 100,000 (on December 9, 2007) in just 80 days of the launch of its services.

The company launched its CDMA services in Punjab and Chandigarh on September 21, 2007.

In an interaction with Business Standard, G D Singh, chief operating officer of HFCL Infotel Ltd, said this has been the fastest-ever growth of customer base in the mobile domain.

On this occasion, Ping mobiles services is offering special value to the new and existing customers, informed Singh. STD 69 Ping plus recharge voucher worth Rs 69 is being offered for Rs 39 only. This RCV offers STD at Re one and all local calls at one paisa per second.

It is worth noting that HFCL Infotel invested Rs 100 crore for launching the Ping mobile service, which is available today in 270 towns and 2,050 villages of Punjab and Chandigarh through a state-wide distribution network of 8,000 retail outlets.

He added that Ping offered, for the first time in the country, a unique customer-friendly pulse rate of one paisa per second, and SIM-based feature rich range of colour mobiles stating at Rs 999 only.

"Further, HFCL Infotel shall invest about Rs 20 crore more to extend the service to 5,000 more villages in Punjab and shall be putting up 100-150 BTS (towers) for the purpose very shortly," Singh said.

"We are targeting a subscriber base of 300,000 by the end of March 2008," he added.

Commenting upon future plans, Singh said, "We have applied for the Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) for 21 circles. We got GSM licence for Punjab circle and are waiting for the licence for other circles."

The company also plans to launch its IPTV by January 2008 with an investment of Rs 40 crore.

HFCL's is the third player in Punjab to join the CDMA bandwagon after Reliance and Tata Indicom. Also, it would become the seventh cellular service provider in Punjab.

At present, Punjab has four GSM players "" Bharti Airtel, Spice, Hutch and BSNL "" and besides HFCL there are two CDMA players. As on October 2007, Punjab had about 8.12 million GSM subscribers and about 1.4 million CDMA subscribers.