BPL Mobile to invest $ 217 million, widen base
By siliconindia staff writer   |   Monday, 17 May 2004, 19:30 IST
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MUMBAI: BPL Mobile will be investing Rs 1,000 crore across four circles over the next 12 months. The company plans to add 550 base stations across all its markets in order to upgrade its network. “We have achieved an 8% revenue growth in Q4 compared to Q3,” said Krishna Angara, COO, BPL Mobile, Mumbai. He did not elaborate on the revenue figures. BPL has acquired more than 2m subscribers, of which Mumbai contributed 1m with the balance spread across the other circles. The company’s subscriber base stood at 1.334m as of October ‘03 and has grown to 2.017m as of April ‘04. In Mumbai alone, the company’s subscriber base has moved from 0.78 m in October ‘03 to 1.01m in April ‘04. BPL also plans to launch a walkie-talkie service by June this year. Currently, the service is under test, said Mr Angara. The walkie-talkie service will be launched over the GPRS platform and will enable mobile users to use their handsets like a walkie-talkie. The company also plans to introduce the Caller Ring Back Tones (CRBT), a feature that allows users to preset a ring tone that will be heard by the caller. Currently, BPL has about 1,293 cell sites across the four circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry and Kerala. BPL has roaming tie-ups with 525 operators across the world.

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