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News >> Technology >>
RCom plans $5 Bn network expansion
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 18:10 IST
Kolkata: With a view to extend its urban and rural coverage, Reliance Communication will invest $5 billion (Rs 20,000 crore) this year. The investment will help the company increase its urban coverage to 98 percent and rural reach to 67 percent.
N K Mangla, head of the regulatory department of Reliance Communication, said, "We plan to have a customer capacity of 8 million or 55 percent of the population in 2008." He was speaking at a press conference in Kolkata.
Currently having 22,000 towers, Reliance also plans to cover 95 percent of highways, 93 percent of railways, 6,000 towns and five lakh villages in 2008.
It is likely to spend around $2.5 billion on the electronics for GSM services, and build 43,000 new towers. Reliance officials also claim that they will have 40,000 towers up and running by the end of this fiscal.
According to Mangla, there is need for more telecommunication service regulations in the face of competition.
"Recently, due to over 60 percent telecom sector growth, competition and disputes among telecom operators and related sectors have increased and therefore there is need for more regulations in the sector." Mangla said.