Tata Tele plans to expand reach
The Hindu Business Line — November 3, 2006

Tata Teleservices, the fixed and wireless telephony services provider of the Tata Group, has aggressive plans to increase its reach all over India and specifically in Tamil Nadu. With a capital expenditure of about Rs 4.5 crore, the company plans to add about 800 towns to its network of 3,200 towns by this fiscal, according to Darryl Green, chief executive officer, Tata Teleservices. It plans to connect about 5,000 towns by 2008.

"We have applied for licences to operate in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and the North-East telecom circles where we do not have a presence right now," said Green. The company has devised plans to gain the mobile services market share in Tamil Nadu. "We are looking at adding about 10 lakh subscribers in Tamil Nadu over the next six months," said Mr Green. It has about 7.25 lakh subscribers. The company has appointed new senior management personnel to head business in Chennai and Tamil Nadu circles.

Launching the new CDMA technology-based mobile handset 'Indicomm Rhythm', Green said it was the first CDMA phone with FM radio facility and would help the company gain the much needed market share in Tamil Nadu. Positioned as an entry level CDMA phone, Rhythm is being launched in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka telecom circles at present. Rhythm handsets have been manufactured by Chinese telecom network provider Huawei Technologies and about 5 lakh handsets are expected to be sold this year, said Green.

Priced at Rs 1,799, the phone has a colour display and supports polyphonic ring tones and up to 20 FM channels. The company has launched the 'Go Xtra' recharge scheme for the phone. Under the scheme, users will get double talk time for all recharges made during the first six months.