Bharti bags mobile licence for five more circles

Thursday, 12 February 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Bharti Tele-Ventures, one of India's leading telecom services providers, said Wednesday it had bagged an official licence for providing mobile phone services in five more circles. The licence has been provided for offering cellular services in Uttar Pradesh (East), West Bengal, Andaman Nicobar, Orissa, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, said a company statement issued here. "With these new licences, we are all set to further expand our footprint in the country," said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group managing director of Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. "While we expect to receive the licence for Rajasthan shortly, we are well on our way to launch GSM (global system for mobile communications) services in these five circles in the second quarter of the next fiscal year," he added. With the bagging of the new licences, New Delhi-based Bharti, which currently provides services in 15 mobile and five fixed-line circles, will have a pan India footprint. The population covered under the company's licence area will also move up from 600 million to 932 million, said the Bharti statement. Bharti had 5.86 million mobile and 587,872 fixed-line subscribers as on Jan 31, 2004. Mobile services constitute the largest portion of the company's business, both in terms of total revenues and customers.
Source: IANS
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