Leading telecom service provider under the Tata Indicom brand, Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), is aiming to increase the subscriber base in the eastern region by 60% to 5 million by March 2009.
"We have already crossed 4.3 million subscriber base and by March we will touch 5 million mark in eastern region. In 2007-08 the number was three million," TTSL Chief Operating Officer (Kolkata) and Regional Head (East) Sanjiv Kumar Sinha told PTI.
Speaking about Bihar, Sinha said it was one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the country both in terms of number of new subscriber and average revenue realisation per user.
He said, "Bihar is adding six to seven lakh new subscribers per month for the industry. TTSL has a subscriber base of 1.7 million and it is likely to expand to two million in the state by March 2009".
On whether the current financial crisis would hit investment in network augmentation next year, Sinha said, "We have invested Rs 400 crore during the year mostly in network strengthening and investment will continue to flow".
TTSL has added 700 base stations taking the total number to 2,000 towers spread over the entire eastern region.
The telecom major has begun setting up network in Orissa for the GSM rollout. The company has received spectrum for Orissa and Kolkata circles for GSM.