Bharti hopes to add 5 lakh broadband users

Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. expects to add around half-a-million subscribers during the financial year 2005-06 (April-March) to the broadband and telephone segment, joint managing director Rajan Bharti Mittal said Wednesday.

"We expect to add around half-a-million subscribers during the next financial year," Mittal said during the launch of the second phase of expansion of the company's broadband and telephone services in Noida, off Delhi. The company currently has around 800,000 fixed-line subscribers.

In the second phase, the company plans to spread its services to nearly 50 cities, said Badri Aggarwal, president, Bharti Infotel Ltd.

"The company's capital expenditure (for broadband services) for the 04-05 fiscal was around Rs 500 crore. A similar amount will be spent during the next financial year," Aggarwal said. Last year, Bharti Tele-Ventures had converted all its mobile licenses into unified licenses.

Bharti's second phase of broadband expansion takes advantage of the conversion to unified licenses to offer integrated telecom services on the erstwhile mobile licenses.

The company has committed an investment of Rs 150 crore for the broadband expansion in Uttar Pradesh alone till March 2006, Agarwal said. Another Rs 350 crore has been committed for mobile services, he added.

Other states that will be included in the second phase include Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab. Some southern states will also included.

Bharti Tele expects to cover 50 cities through its broadband services by the end of 2005, targeting the data-rich customer segment of corporates, small and medium enterprises and high net worth individuals.

Noida, with stepped-up industrialisation and burgeoning business process outsourcing units is a focus area for Bharti, Mittal said.

The company currently derives nearly 15-16 per cent revenues from broadband and telephone services. "The average revenue per user for broadband services is at around Rs 1,200 per month," Mittal said.

When asked about the company's proposed issue of American depositary shares, Mittal refused to comment.

The company recently tied up a $354-million overseas loan to its fund expansion projects.

The company will announce its October-December results on January 27.