The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Telecom firms fast-track expansion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 10, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Telecom firms fast-track expansion

M. Dinesh Varma

In the next several months, State will add a few thousands more communication towers

Competitors may share more of their infrastructure among themselves
Cooperation-within-competition model will put a cap on tower structures

CHENNAI: With an estimated 5.50 lakh customers joining the subscriber base every month in one of the fastest-growing markets in the country, telecom service providers are fast-tracking expansions plans.

Over the next several months, the State will add a few thousands more communication towers, or Base Station Towers (BSTs), that could lead to connectivity in the hinterlands.

Besides new BST clusters operators are establishing for their exclusive use, the road ahead will feature more sharing of infrastructure among competitors.

The cooperation-within-competition model will put a cap on tower structures, avoid superfluous capital spend and lower consumer-end costs, industry leaders say. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is pressing ahead with plans to expand the scope of its CellOne services across the State.

The immediate plans include setting up of at least 250 more BSTs in Chennai and another 1,000 across the State, said M. P. Velusamy, Chief General Manager, Chennai Telephones.

At present, BSNL’s Chennai Telephones claims a seamless connectivity in Chennai Circle with one BST stationed every 300 metres of road length.

Airtel plan

Bharti’s Airtel houses 4,500 BTSs in Tamil Nadu, and the number would be scaled up to cope with the ever-increasing subscriber demand for quality of service. “As part of the latest network expansion initiative, Airtel coverage would be extended to over 17,000 villages in rural Tamil Nadu,” said Mahesh Thampi, Chief Operating Officer, Mobile services, Chennai and Tamil Nadu, Bharti Airtel Limited.

Tata to cover 500 towns

Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) is now aspiring to step up its coverage to at least 500 more towns by 2008. It already has 720 exclusive towers and will look to share infrastructure with other players when it moves into smaller locales, said TTSL Circle Operations Officer Ravinder Taneja.

Hutch now covers over 900 towns and 9,000 villages through its network in Tamil Nadu, besides running a seamless operation in Chennai through 1,200 Base Stations.

Hutch, which supports both the technologies of EDGE and GPRS, expects to take the network to 1,500 towns and over 16,000 villages by March 2008.

Infrastructure sharing, besides investing in exclusive infrastructure, is central to Hutch expansion policy, said Kumar Ramanathan, Operations Director, Tamil Nadu, Vodafone Essar Cellular Limited.

The other key players, Reliance and Aircel, too are into massive expansion.

Telecom operators concur that though mobile telephony is still some distance from reaching the saturation level in urban centres, the business boom is headed to the countryside where the level of penetration is as low as 2-3 per cent.

“Cities still have not reached saturation levels. This, however, does not take away from the fact there is a gap between the rural areas and the city. It is, therefore, imperative that we reduce this gap and let all rural customers enjoy the benefits of mobile telephony,” Mr. Ramanathan said.

A majority of investments, he said, would be in rural areas to expand coverage.

This would enable the industry to double the existing mobile base in the next 12-18 months.

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