The Aditya Birla group-promoted Idea Cellular has drawn up a Rs 800-crore (Rs 8-billion) capex plan, which includes Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) for new licences in the current fiscal, a top company official said.
"We plan to invest Rs 800-crore in FY 09. We will invest Rs 600-crore (Rs 6-billion) for the roll-out of our Mumbai operations while Rs 200-crore (Rs 2-billion) will be spent on new licenses," Aditya Birla Group Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla, said on the sidelines of a conference to announce the launch of Idea's mobile service in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The company now plans to start services in Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Orissa by end-December-January-2009.
After the merger of Spice Telecom, the company will start services in Karnataka and Punjab, Birla said.
Idea Cellular currently runs operations in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and holds spectrum for Bihar, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and licenses for the remaining six service areas.
With the planned launch of services in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, before the end of this fiscal, Idea's footprint will soon cover approximately 90 per cent of India's telephony potential, Birla said.
Idea has aggressive growth plans, he said, adding that the Mumbai launch bolstered its position as a leading telecom player in the country.
Birla expects number portability in the next 10-12 months and was hopeful of Idea's Mumbai operations to break-even in four years.
Idea is looking at garnering 20 per cent of the net additions of around 3.5-lakh customers per month in the Mumbai circle in the next one year and at least 8-lakh customers in the next 12-months, Idea Cellular's Managing Director, Sanjeev Aga, said.
Along with this, Idea will open a round-the-clock call centre and 60 exclusive showrooms in Mumbai. It will also enter the data card and the local phone booth segment, popularly known as PCO or public call office, Aga said.
With over 28-million subscribers, Idea is hoping to benefit from the partnership with Malaysian telecom giant TMI, which already has 3G operations in three countries through its subsidiaries-Celcom in Malaysia, XL in Indonesia and Dialog in Sri Lanka.
TMI has experience of operating in international markets. TMI has recently come in as a significant shareholder and will provide synergies-roaming, value-added services and other areas, Aga said. TMI has nearly 45-million users across 10 Asian markets.
We are practically a zero-debt company and we have enough capacity to bid for spectrum on our own," Aga said.
