 "Idea Cellular inches up on rollout of 4G services in South India")
Shares of India's third-biggest mobile phone operator, Idea Cellular have inched up and are trading nearly 1% higher in an otherwise subdued market after the company launched high speed fourth-generation (4G) mobile phone services across South India on Wednesday, ahead of the Reliance Jio.
The company launched high-speed 4G services across 750 towns in the five southern states of Andhra Pradesh & Telengana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Post this move, Idea has become the third operator after Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India to roll out 4G services.
Major towns to be covered with Idea’s 4G LTE services at launch include Kochi, Hosur, Kadapa, Malapuram, Madurai, Mysore, Rajahmundry, Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli, Tiruppur, Vijayawada and Vishakhapatnam, while Belgaum, Calicut, Cuddalore, Chitradurga, Guntur, Kakinada, Kancheepuram and Trichur will follow by 31st December 2015.
Meanwhile, Idea will rapidly expand 4G services in all Southern India metros and large towns including Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Mangalore and Coimbatore by March 2016.
Idea is also gearing to launch 4G LTE services by March 2016 in other key markets namely, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra & Goa, Punjab, Haryana, North East and Orissa, in a phased manner. By June 2016, Idea’s 4G footprint will cover 750 cities across 10 telecom circles.
Idea Cellular currently holds 1800 MHz 4G spectrum in these 10 circles which cover 50%t of the telecom market but over 60 per cent of Idea’s gross revenue.
The stock opened at Rs 141.30 and touched a high of Rs 142.30 on the BSE. At 11:15 am, a total of 136,136 shares have changed hands on the BSE.