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AirTel plans 4,000 km optic fibre network

Our Bureau

HYDERABAD, June 5

BHARTI Mobile Ltd, a joint venture of Bharti Enterprises and Telia, has outlined AirTel's growth plans. It plans to invest over Rs. 1,000 crores in Andhra Pradesh. This includes the laying of 4,000 km of fibre optic cable network. The JTM brand has now b ecome AirTel.

AirTel, which is set to launch the pre-paid option in Andhra Pradesh, is planning a WAP (wireless access protocol) gateway with a number of value-added services such as surfing the Net, faster data transfer and download of files.

The Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises, Mr. Sunil Kumar Mittal, said Bharti has made continuous investments to expand capacity, introduce new technologies and strengthen the depth of coverage.

Mr. Mittal inaugurated AirTel's Mega Millennium network in partnership with Ericsson's new mobile switching centre here. He said with this facility, the installed capacity has gone up to 1,15,000 from the current capacity of 40,000. This is to be expande d to 2,00,000 in the current fiscal. The system architecture allows for modular expansion of subscriber capacity for future growth.

This expansion is in line with AirTel's plan to increase the number of customers to over one lakh by March 2001. The operator has set itself a target of 50 per cent of the user base in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It expects these two States to touch 2 lakh users by March 31.

The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Mobile, Mr. Badri Agarwal, said the expansion of switching capacity will be matched by expansion of coverage with AirTel setting up more cell sites. By September, AirTel plans to have over 150 cell sites.

Mr. Mittal said the company has invested Rs. 400 crores in the acquisition of a majority stake in the erstwhile JTM. In addition to this, another Rs. 200 crores is being invested to upgrade existing switches and add fresh capacity, lay optic fibre backb one, bring in value-added services and roll out services in more centres in Andhra Pradesh.

As a first step, AirTel is set to start operations in Kakinada, Rajahmundry and Bhimavaram by July 2000. Work is underway to lay approximately 2,000 km of optic fibre cable lines in Andhra Pradesh. The optic fibre cable project is expected to be complet ed by September 2001 in three phases, Mr. Mittal said.

AirTel has also launched SmartNet, a short messaging service facility which enables sending messages of up to 160 characters to any mobile in the world having roaming agreements with AirTel. This facility is planned to be used for news, stock updates and to enable mobile banking.