New Delhi: Tata Teleservices (TTSL) plans to invest around Rs 350 crore by September as incremental capital expenditure in order to ramp up its operations in Delhi. The company has also decided the manner in which the phone numbers of its mobile subscribers will change from the current eight-digit numbering scheme to the ten-digit numbering scheme. 

“By September 2004, the company will spend a total of around Rs 1,150 crore (including the above-mentioned Rs 350 crore capex) for its operations in Delhi,” said TTSL CEO Rajeev Burman. 

Sharing the company’s expansion plans, Mr Burman said, “The company will increase its capacity in a phased manner over the next six months.” TTSL will have 5.5 lakh lines in Delhi by April from the current level of 2.5 lines, the exchange capacity will further be increased to 1 million lines in the National Capital Region (NCR) by September. 

When asked as to how TTSL’s customers will be affected with new number scheme, Mr Burman said, “Our mobile customers will have to prefix 92xx instead of their first two digits, which would be 5x. They will be informed through text messages, mailers and newspaper ads.” It may be pointed out that after TTSL migrated its basic licences to unified access licences, DoT had made it mandatory for the company to shift to 10-digit numbering scheme starting with 9. Earlier, its limited mobility subscribers were on an 8-digit numbering scheme starting with 5. 

On the company’s plans to launch push-to-talk (PTT) technology-based handsets, he said, “We do plan to launch PTT handsets. We are working out the details of handset prices.” As reported by eFE earlier, TTSL plans to launch PTT services with Motorola and Kyocera handsets. PTT technology enables two-way radio like features in cell phones. PTT enables group calling, that is one person can talk simultaneously to a group of people, by pushing one button on the cell phone instead of dialing any number. PTT handsets have one extra button as compared to other normal cellphone handsets. In this technology, while one person talks, other(s) listen. Benefits of PTT include instant contact, time savings and relatively lesser charges.