Tata Tele to cover all of Orissa
Business Standard — February 13, 2007

Tata Tele Services, one of the country's leading mobile service provider companies, aims to spread its network in entire Orissa by the end of 2007-08.

The company which provides its service under the brand name Tata Indicom, has a presence in 22 out of 30 districts in the state.

However, the company's network is yet to reach most of the southern Orissa districts including Koraput, Rayagada, Nabaragapur, Malkanagiri, Kalahandi and Nuapada.

"We have worked out a strategy to expand our network to these districts by next fiscal" said Ajay Srivastav, the chief operating officer, Orissa.

He however did not spell out the details of the company's investment plan as it is yet to be approved by the corporate head office. "We will simultaneously increase the number of customers and infrastructure by strengthening the switch capacity to provide obstacle-free services to the customers" he said.

In the last two years of its operation in the state, the company's customer base has soared to 2.30 lakh, he said.

It is expected to reach 2.50 lakh by the end of the current financial year, he added. The switch capacity of the company in the state is for five lakh customers.

"As we have much more switch capacity than our customers, the Tata Indicom customers are never facing problem during the call period", he said. It's one of the main reasons why the people prefer Tata Indicom cell phones, although several other players are in the field, he claimed.