Reliance to upgrade northeast network

Airtel was launched in Assam and NE circles on April 13 by Sunil Bharti Mittal.

RTL officials of the Anil Ambani-promoted venture said the company was on a special drive to increase the number of base stations in and around Guwahati, the single biggest cellular market in the north-eastern region.

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Infocomm has not started its service in the north-east.

Bharti launched operations in Guwahati with 50 base stations.

RTL will expand its service to upper Assam, Aizwal and Imphal, from its existing set-up in Guwahati and Shillong.

According to RTL officials, the company is putting up additional 10-12 base stations in Guwahati to increase penetration and improve services.

The company is also working on revised call rates to face competition from BSNL and Airtel.

Reliance Telecom currently has around 50 base stations in Guwahati.

"The service has a customer base of around 1.10 lakh in Assam, mostly in Guwahati. Besides, it has around 28,000 customers in NE circle. The aim is to get 2 lakh users by end of this fiscal," an official said.

BSNL, the other existing cellular service provider, has a subscriber base of 2.30 lakh in the region.

From December 2004, the cellular market has been booming in the region.

Reliance Telecom has been adding 6,000 customers every month in the region from 1,500-2,000 earlier.

The official said sales rose following relaunch of pre-paid services in Assam and NE circles from December 2004.

Incidentally, the prepaid service was banned in the region in early 2003 on security grounds.

"Relaunch of the prepaid service has really made the difference. We feel that the launch of Airtel will affect us as the total size of the market is growing at a double digit rate," he said.

The director (east market) of Bharti, Rajan Swarup, also endorsed this view at the Airtel launch in Guwahati, saying the NE cellular market would double in a year.