Hutch to invest $55 million in Delhi circle

By siliconindia staff writer   |   Thursday, 18 December 2003, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The Indian mobile unit of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate said on Thursday it would invest Rs 2.5 billion ($55 million) next year on expanding its network in New Delhi and the suburbs. Hutchison, which provides GSM-based cellular services in 10 of the 23 zones making up the booming mobile sector, has more than four million customers. India has a total user base of 20.73 million cellular users. The investment will help Hutchison boost its capacity by 30-40 per cent in Delhi, the country's largest market for cellular services, where the firm already has a million users. "Our focus in Delhi has been to improve coverage footprint, increasing network capacity and maximising network availability for our subscribers," Hutchison Essar Telecom executive director Rajiv Sawhney said in a statement. The firm competes with Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, 16 per cent owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, Idea Cellular Ltd and state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) in the Delhi market.