Airtel to cover all towns with 5K plus pop

Claiming that it had covered all towns with 10,000 populations in North Maharashtra, Bharti Airtel-the leading mobile service provider in the country has announced to bring all towns in North Maharashtra with 5,000 plus populations under its network by March 2008.

Informing about the company's expansion plan, Mandeep Bhatia, COO (Mobile Service), Bharati Airtel Ltd, Maharashtra & Goa circle, said, "As part of its expansion plan, Airtel is investing around $2 billions across the country next year. The company has also chalked out expansion plans for the North Maharashtra region to strengthen its base here. Airtel aims to cover all 5,000 plus population locations by end of March 2008 in North Maharashtra."

The company is covering an average of 36 new locations per month in North Maharashtra, which includes 534 locations with 5,000 plus population.

Out of 534 lcoations, around 395 locations have already been covered so far and the company will cover remaining 139 more such 5,000 plus locations by the end of the current financial year 2007-08.

Bharti Airtel also plans to extend its network to 1,000 new locations across nine districts - Nashik, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Bid, Buldhana, Dhule, Jalgaon, Jalna and Nandurbar, by March 2008.

In Nashik district, the company has already launched its network over 60 locations so far, covering areas like Manmad, Lasalgaon, Ghoti, Budruk, Soyagaon, Chandvad, Dabhadi, Ravalgaon among others.

The company plans to connect around 70 new locations with its network in Nashik district during the present FY2007-08.

Bharti Airtel Ltd, a group company of Bharti Enterprises has 50.94 million customers by September 2007, consisting 48.87 million mobile customers.