Airtel to cover towns with 10K population

With the aim of strengthening its base in rural areas in Maharashtra and Goa, Airtel, a leading mobile service provider, is planning to cover all 10,000-population towns by the end of March 2007.

Meanwhile, Airtel has claimed to have become the first operator in the circle to install 2,000 cell sites in Maharashtra and Goa. The 2000th cell site was installed recently at Malgaon in Sangli district.

To cater to the demand for increased capacities in the north region, Airtel will be commissioning two additional Base Station Controllers (BSCs) in the region in Jalna and Sangamner by March 2007.

The company today covers close to 145 locations in the northern Maharashtra region, with over close to 40 locations in Nashik district alone. Airtel is the only private operator to offer its services in locations like Dharur, Malkapur, Mantha, Peint, Wadwani, Rajur and Ravalgaon in the region.

"Airtel is aggressively spreading its network, setting up about 18 cell sites on an average per week and would be covering almost all 10,000-population towns by the end of March next year. Our focus is to tap huge potential that Maharashtra and Goa holds and we will leave no stone unturned to deliver the best network coverage, capacity and quality to our customers," according to Madeep Bhatia, chief operating officer, Bharti Airtel Ltd, M&G circle.

"Additionally, to cater to the increased demand for Airtel services, the company has commissioned over four Mobile Switching centres in the two states and will be shortly deploying the fifth one in Kolhapur by the end of November. The proactive capacity augmentation will help handle capacity of 30 lakh customers by March 2007 and further aid in continuing the legacy of delivering congestion free network to the customers," Bhatia added.

Besides, Airtel has built new capacities in the existing coverage areas to cater to the ever-increasing mobile traffic thus ensuring 'on demand capacity'.

"A special focus is on indoor coverage through 'in-building solutions' at locations with large volumes of crowd, like multiplexes, malls, public utility services, hotels, and hospitals to provide clear and congestion free network at all times. In keeping up with the company's quest to offer superior value, Airtel will deploy state-of-the-art technologies to provide unmatched benefits to the customers," Bhatia informed.