Bharti national roll out done, plans $900mn capex

The Bharti Group, which offers mobile services under the Airtel brand, has become the first private telecom operator to complete a nation-wide network covering all 23 circles at an investment of Rs 15,000 crore.

Sunil Mittal, chairman and managing director of Bharti group, announced an additional investment of $900 million (over Rs 4,000 crore) in the current financial year to expand operations.

Sunil Mittal would make a call to Prime Manmohan Singh on Wednesday from Assam to mark the completion of the national roll out of Bharti's celllular operations.

The company has now started focussing on expansion of fixed line telecom services, and is eying a major share of the broadband segment, Mittal said.

He added that rural coverage was another area of concern for the company. "We have plans to cover between 2.5-3 lakh villages in 2005-06."

"We have set up 10,000 base stations in the last 10 years. We would be adding 10,000 base stations  in the current fiscal alone to reach every corner of the country," Mittal said.

He said the company would be reaching a customer base of 15 million soon.