Mumbai : Dr J. J. Irani has been appointed Chairman of Tata Teleservices Ltd.

Mr Adi Engineer, Managing Director of Tata Power, has been inducted as a Director. Three members of the Group Executive Office of Tata Group — Mr Kishor Chaukar, Mr R. Gopalakrishnan and Mr Ishaat Hussain — continue as members of the Tata Teleservices board, as also Mr N. S. Ramachandran, former Managing Director of MTNL. Mr S. Ramakrishnan continues as Managing Director.

The appointment of Dr Irani as Chairman and the expansion of the board signify the importance the Tata Group attaches to Tata Teleservices. The company is spearheading the group's foray into telecom, one of the largest greenfield investments undertaken by the group.

Tata Teleservices, which is implementing the basic telephone license in Andhra Pradesh, has signed up licenses to provide telecom services in Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The total investment in these four states is estimated at Rs.3,500 crore. The company is also seeking licenses in Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Kerala.

The promoters of Tata Teleservices Ltd and Hughes Tele.com (India) Ltd. are in discussions for a possible combination of their operations in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Tata Teleservices, which started operations in March 1999, currently provides telecom services in Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. It plans to start services in six new towns in this fiscal year. The company has a customer base of 80,000 subscribers, expected to grow to 1,50,000 by March 31, 2002.

The cumulative investment in Tata Teleservices till date has been 
Rs.1,200 crore. It plans to invest another Rs.500 crore during this fiscal. The company was the first to launch limited mobility services, post-paid Internet services and Centrex in the country.

It recently expanded its wireless network to increase coverage in the existing operating areas in Andhra Pradesh and steps are being taken to upgrade the wireless network to be 3G  (third generation) compatible.