Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) today reconstituted the board of Hughes Tele.com India Ltd (HTIL) with J J Irani as its chairman and seven other directors.

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), the new company, will come into effect only after all regulatory approvals are in place.

TTSL now holds a 71 per cent equity in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) following the acquisition of a 50.83 per cent stake in HTIL and a 20 per cent stake under an open offer.

The other directors on the board are Ishaat Hussain, R Gopalakrishnan, Kishore Chaukar, Firdose Vandrevala and two independent directors 
N S Ramachandran, Pradman Kaul, and managing director S Ramakrishnan.

Irani, chairman of TTSL, said, “After several hiccups along the way, we have arrived at our destination. We have appointed the board of Tata Tele Maharashtra similar to that of TTSL. We also intent to appoint a third independent director in the next few days.”

Ramakrishnan, managing director of TTSL, said, “The combined turnover of the company is expected to be around Rs 600 crore and intend to double it in the next 2-3 years and expect to reach a turnover of Rs 4,000 crore in five years.”

On the investment front, Ramakrishnan pointed out that TTSL has already invested Rs 2,400 crore in Andhra Pradesh as well as in the four new circles - Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.

The company’s total investment in the project stands at Rs 7,500 crore till 2008-9. Of which, the Tata group companies such as Tata Sons, Tata Industries, Tata Power and VSNL will contribute Rs 4,100 crore towards equity, while the remaining will be the debt component, Ramakrishnan added.

TTSL is talking to leading financial institution ICICI to raise debt. In the Maharashtra circle, the company is planning invests up to Rs 3,500 crore which will include Rs 500 crore on wireless local loop.

Tata Teleservices is at present upgrading its wireless network to 3G 1x with capabilities of handling speeds up to 144 kbps.

Ramakrishnan indicated that the company is implementing code-division multiple access-based limited mobility service in the first quarter of 
2003-04 in Maharashtra.

On Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Tata Teleservices synergising operations, Ramakrishnan pointed out that the two companies were already taking advantage of common infrastructure to reduce cost of operation.

“We are looking at various infrastructure so that there is no duplication such as sharing switch rooms,” he added.