In a bid to expand its fixed telephony business, Tata Teleservices has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 2500 crore to add 6 million fixed wireless lines across 20 telecom circles by 2008. This capital expenditure would be in addition to the Rs 1500 crores already invested on instruments by the company over the last 24 months. This will enable Tata Teleservices to retain its position as the world's largest operator in the Fixed Wireless space, Harish Bhat, President - Marketing, Tata Teleservices. Tata Teleservices 's FWP is under the brand name of 'Walky'. Refuting the recent concerns of mobility in Fixed Wireless Phones by GSM Operators, he said the size and weight of a FWP instrument is over 10 times the size and weight of a mobile phone. A FWP Instrument can no way substitute for a mobile phone as its size and weight, which are visible to a naked eye, make the characteristics of the service crystal clear to the subscriber, Bhat said. Additionally, Tata Teleservices has also locked its customers within a Restriction Zone thereby complying with the recent Government directives on Fixed Wireless Service, he said. The recent experience of consumer acceptance of FWP services has been quite encouraging. Tata Teleservices FWP subscriber base stands at about 2.5 million as on date , Bhat added. Consumers see tremendous advantages through features like high speed internet access with speeds upto 153 kbps, SMS, speaker phone, Caller line Identification, Bhat said. The cumulative fixed wireless phone subscriber base in the country stood close to 5 million as on date, as compared to around 40 million wireline subscribers. The exponential growth of mobile category in the last 3 years saw the subscriber base crossing 52 million subscribers last month. Fixed Service operators with a subscriber base of 50 million provide telephony services to over 250 million individuals, as compared to 52 million mobile subscribers who use it as a personal phone, Bhat said. We believe that offering high quality fixed wireless services at affordable tariffs will not only contribute towards a uniform and sustainable increase in teledensity in rural areas, but will also be an effective option to the 81 per cent urban population who do not have access to telephony, he said.The exponential growth of the mobile segment and the negligible growth in fixed phones necessitate promoting fixed phones to avoid future teledensity imbalances, Bhat added.
