Tata Tele gets 12 circles more

To launch Tata Indicom services across 100 K'taka towns by year-end

Tata Teleservices has acquired licences to operate in 12 more circles "� Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West) and West Bengal.

The mobile service provider is planning to launch its services across 100 towns in Karnataka by the end of 2004.

"Tata Teleservices will be adding 383 cities in the new circles by March 2005 and the 49 cities in the existing circles will be increased to 413 cities by November 2004," said Prabhat Pani, chief operating officer (Karnataka circle) of Tata Teleservices.

Tata Indicom on Tuesday launched its CDMA mobiles, fixed wireless and public telephones in Udupi and Manipal.

"Tata Indicom is planning to launch its services across 100 towns in Karnataka by the end of 2004. With this roll out, we will be covering all the key towns and highways in Karnataka. Tata Indicom is the first universal license service provider to announce 10-digit numbering plan in line with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) regulations. It has, for the first time in Asia, launched a new product called push-to-talk where one can speak to groups simultaneously. It has a customer base of 10,000 in Mangalore. We are now focussing on large corporates like banks who will end up to be large customers for us," he said.

Tata Indicom has over 1,90,000 subscribers in Karnataka. At present, its services are available in Mangalore, Udupi, Manipal, Madikeri, Puttur and Bantwal.

Its services, including seamless coverage, will be available in two towns along the coastal highway, in Mangalore-Karwar-Madikeri hub by December 2004. Karwar will also be included in the map by the first week of August.

Tata Indicom's coverage in Mangalore city has also been enhanced by increasing the number of cell sites from seven to 11 -- to meet the increasing requirements of coverage in Mangalore and its surrounding areas including Surathkal, Baikampady, Ullal, Thokottu and Derlakatte. Tata Teleservices, Karnataka circle, at present offers Tata Indicom services in 55 major towns.