Bharti may roll out new fixed-line strategy

Bharti Enterprises will soon unveil a strategy for its fixed-line services post the government's new unified licensing policy. The company plans to target small enterprises and corporates for its broadband services.

Rajan Bharti Mittal, joint managing director, Bharti Enterprises said, "There will not be any massification of fixed-line services. We are strategising for our basic services so as to have specific roll outs in 10 markets across the country. We have huge bandwidth available with us and we will provide services to corporates especially for carrying data traffic."

Some of the 10 markets targeted by Bharti for data traffic are Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Harayana, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. Mittal pointed out that the company had dual licenses in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Harayana and Tamil Nadu.

"With unified license, the government should work on a refund mechanism and expect the government to return at least Rs 150 crore", Mittal added.

On international long distance (ILD), Mittal said the government should soon clarify the carrier access code (CAC) which will give the customer opportunity to access other carriers.