Tata Tele to invest Rs 225 cr in Gujarat

Plans to expand customer base, strengthen wireless phone services

Tata Teleservices Ltd, which provides CDMA cellular, fixed wireless phone and wireline phone services in the state, plans to invest Rs 225 crore in the Gujarat circle in the current fiscal year.

This is primarily to strengthen its wireless phone services, increase the reach of its optical fibre cable (OFC) backbone and enhance customer services.

The telecom major also aims to substantially increase its customer base in the state. Jagrut Vyas, chief operating officer, Tata Tele, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh, said that the company aims at increasing the subscriber base to 7.50-8 lakh by the end of the current fiscal. Currently Tata Tele has a subscriber base of 5 lakh.

"Tata Tele will invest Rs 225 crore in the Gujarat circle. Majority of this investment will go into strengthening the OFC backbone, enhancing the wireless services and substantially increasing the customer services," said Jagrut Vyas. Tata Tele has so far invested around Rs 1,000 crore in the Gujarat circle over the past three years or so.

Among the five-lakh subscribers in Gujarat, 60 per cent are in the fixed category (fixed wireless and wireline phones). In 2004-05, Tata Tele added around 300,000 subscribers. Of this, over 200,00 were in the FWP category and the remaining 100,000 in the cellular category.

"The incremental connections in the past year have shown that FWOP additions have been double than those of cellular. But this year, due to the recently launched pre-paid service, the number of cellular and FWP connections are likely to be around the same," Vyas said.

He said that last year, there was an overall growth of six per cent in the FWP segment in Gujarat.

"Tata Tele added 2.10 lakh subscribers, which amounts to 73 per cent of the total additions," said Vyas. However, the company added just about a lakh cellular subscribers last year and currently holds three per cent of the cumulative cellular market share in the state.

Vyas said that the total number of True Value Hubs and True Value Shoppes will be increased to about 300 by June from the current 100 outlets.

"The OFC network, which now is 1,600 km long, will be increased to 2,200 by the year end," he said.

Currently Tata Tele reaches in 110 towns at present, which will be increased to 150 by June and to 200 towns by December.