"The expansion will be more in the rural areas of the state. Since the mobile penetration in the region is quite low, there is still lot of potential for tapping the market. Currently, the capex planned for the year is Rs 165 crore," said Naveen Bhasin, chief operating officer, Tata Teleservices.

In the financial year 2008-09, the company intends to take up its subscribers base from the current one million in the Gujarat circle to nearly 1.15 million.

Bhasin added that the company will strategically focus on what it calls as a ‘green channel'.

"A green channel is a belt comprising of towns where despite of low activity, it is a must for a telecom operator to be present. For example, the union territory of Diu has a low turnout but being an ideal vacation destination, it is a must to set up a cell site there to attract subscribers," said Bhasin.

Also, it will focus on towns and villages with a number of interlinked business activities.

The company believes that with the advent of number portability, the CDMA players will gain an upper edge over GSM players, given the former's willingness to give out numbers and better network.

On the network front, Tata Teleservices will also be using the investment to set up more number of base stations in Gujarat.

"We currently have 700 base stations in Gujarat and by the end of the financial year, we intend to take the number to 1,000-odd," added Bhasin.