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Maxis Comm plans to invest $1B in India
By agencies
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Wednesday, 08 February 2006, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: Malaysian telecom major Maxis Communications Berhad has planned fresh investment of $1 billion in the Indian market following its acquisition of Tamil Nadu-based cellular services company Aircel Ltd.
The company said that this is in addition to $1.08 billion investment the Malaysian company has kept aside to take a 74 percent stake in Aircel through a joint venture with the Apollo Group.
The company stated in a letter to the Communication ministry, Maxis expects to invest over $1billion in India in the coming three to five years. It has great confidence in the potential of both the Indian economy and the Indian telecommunication market.
Maxis want to expand its presence through Aircel's operations across the country to give it a pan-India footprint. The company has applied for new unified services licenses in Mumbai, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Of the billion dollar fresh investment being planned by Maxis, $100 million will be spent on ramping up Aircel's existing second-generation network.
Another $500-$700 million is being planned to build brand new EDGE enabled cellular network in Assam, North-East and Orissa, the company stated. The company also said that it would make substantial investments for rolling our third generation services and wireless technologies like WiMax for broadband and fixed line telephone users.