Kolkata cell units to invest Rs1000cr in 2008

The telecommunication sector in Kolkata is likely to see investment in excess of Rs 1,000 crore this year as telecom service providers plan more cell-sites, retail outlets, and enhancement of network coverage.

Telecom operators are also on a hiring spree and are likely to add close to 1000 employees in 2008 in Kolkata alone for call centres and other back office support systems.

At present Kolkata has close to 70 lakh mobile users among a population of approximately 1.2 crore.

According to data released by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI), Vodafone was the market leader in Kolkata till November 2007 with 1697899 subscribers. Its subcriber base as on April 2007 in Kolkata was 1313439.

While Airtel had 15,438,95 subscribers in November 2007, up from 1105507 in April 2007.

BSNL had 8.188.69 subscribers in Kolkata as on November 2007, up from 634285 in April 2007.

Reliance Communications had 1,303,305 subscribers as on November 2007, up from 1,024,802 in April 2007, while Tata Teleservices had 1,063,478 sebscribers till November 2007, up from 883,023 in April 2007.

Vodafone also topped in terms of subscriber addition.

During April to November 2007, it added 384460 subscribers, while Airtel added 438388 subscribers, followed by Reliance Communications which added 278503, BSNL added 184584, and Tata Teleservices added 180455 subscribers.

For 2008, Reliance Communications in West Bengal will add around 260 towers to enhance network capacity. Currently it has about 750 towers and a subscriber base of over 30 lakh in West Bengal. Reliance is also trying to think of a tariff structure that will suit the rural population of West Bengal. This, Reliance hopes, will be introduced in 2008.

Tata Teleservices will invest Rs 500 crore over the next six months in eastern India for expanding operations, putting up new towers and retail stores.

The company has also applied for licences for North-East and Assam and plans to invest Rs 300 crore in setting up towers and in capacity building in the region.

Tata Teleservices is also investing Rs 200 crore in the next six months to cover a total of 1500 towns from the present 690 towns in eastern India. Part of this investment will go into setting up new retail outlets selling Tata's telecom products. At present, the company has over 600 telecom stores in east and will add 200 more in the next six months.

Vodafone is looking at extending its network coverage to all the 39 villages in West Bengal this year. At present it covers close to 30 villages in the region.

Vodafone will add close to 60 cell sites in Kolkata. At present, it has 1,400 cell sites in Kolkata and 1,900 in Bengal.

Vodafone Essar now has operations in 16 circles covering 86 per cent of India's mobile customer base, with over 34.1 million customers.

Airtel is looking at investing over Rs 400 crore this year in Bengal and Kolkata circles to enhance connectivity.

Bharti had estimated its capital expenditure this fiscal at $3.5 billion (Rs 12,000 crore). Seventy per cent of the amount would be spent on mobility services.

Airtel also plans to enhance its network connection throughout the state.

At the beginning of 2006-07, it had 1,000 cell sites, but, now with an investment of over Rs 400 crore, it stands at 2,200. This is to ensure that Airtel subscribers do not experience frequent call drops, network congestion and coverage black spots.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam limited (BSNL), one of India's largest telecommunication services providers, has estimated the capital outlay for 2008 at Rs 29,654 crore, and it will be Rs 31,163 crore in 2009, and Rs 32705 crore in 2010.

According to S K Chakraborty, chief general manager, BSNL, Calcutta Telephones, from January 2008, BSNL plans to add three million GSM subscribers every month together with five lakh broadband connections a month.

This apart, BSNL plans to enhance its broadband services from 2 mega bytes (MB) per household at present to 100 MB in the urban areas, and 2MB in the rural areas. Currently, there are 1.1 lakh BSNL broadband connections in the city.

BSNL also plans to grow at 27 per cent per annum to achieve a target of 20 billion users by 2010.

BSNL has released a tender for Wi Max services, a fourth generation(4G) technology, in the country. It would use Wi Max in 2008 as an educational component by connecting 40,000 schools under broadband coverage.

BSNL will tender for 50,000 Wi Max kiosks all over the country that will generate employment opportunities. Wi Max was seen by some as the only viable option after the GoI had set a target of 20 million subscribers by 2010, and broadband access was still low.