Aircel to invest $400 million for expansion

Cellular service provider Aircel will embark on an over $400-million pan-India network expansion to double its subscriber base of 5 million over 18-24 months.

Announcing Aircel's successful test trials for 3G technology in Chennai, Jagdish Kini, group chief executive officer, Aircel, said the company was hoping to invest over $400 million in rolling out its services in other regions of the country in the next couple of years.

The company has a presence in nine telecom circles, and has obtained licences to launch services in the remaining 14 circles of the country.

Last year, the company invested close to $300 million in expanding its network, he added. The company's subscriber base has just crossed the 5 million mark, Kini said.

Aircel, now part of Malaysia's Maxis Communications, is also gearing up for the roll-out of 3G-based services.

The company said it had successfully conducted 3G interoperability on its network. The trials were conducted in association with China-based ZTE Corporation, a leading telecom equipment provider.

The company said it tested a range of 3G services, including voice calls and video calls (64 Kpbs), downloading of movies pictures (384-1024 Kbps) and HSDPA-based (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) services like large data downloads and streaming movies online (at 3.3 Mbps).

Aircel has received permission to conduct such trials in Coimbatore, Bhubaneshwar, Shillong and Guwahati, and expects to complete the trials before March.

While the company has conducted the 3G trials in association with ZTE in Chennai, it is likely to conduct the trials in other four cities through vendors like Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens.

The Department of Telecommunications has allowed existing mobile service providers to conduct 3G trials in select cities before March 31.