Idea cellular service reaches to Mumbai and Bihar

Kolkata, Feb 06 (UNI) Idea Cellular Limited, a leading telecom service provider of the Aditya Birla Group, is now poised to launch its service to two more circles - Mumbai and Bihar - soon with a view to expanding its customer base to over 13 million by next year.

IDEA chief operating officer Ambrish P Jain here today said with the receipt of necessary government clearance, they had got the licence to start the new operation in Mumbai and Bihar circles immediately.

With this IDEA service would now be available in 13 of the country's 23 telecom circles covering more than 65 per cent of population, Mr Jain said adding following the recent government green signal, Idea cellular service would now be available in most of the states.

At present the company had a customer base of 11.4 million in the country.

About his plan to cover the remaining circles, Mr Jain said they had already applied to the concerned authorities for the necessary licensing and hoped it would be coming soon either separately or in one go.

Among the circles, yet to be covered by the company, are West Bengal, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, Sikkim and other Northeastern states.

Mr Jain said Idea would enter the capital market with 21 million equity shares of Rs ten each and raise Rs 225 crore through book building process from February 12.

During the past nine months of the current fiscal, their business grew by over 38 per cent with the net profitability crossing the Rs 29 crore mark.

He, however, ruled out the possibilitry of merger of any Idea subsidiary with the parent company as reported in a section of the media.

About the proposed consolidation among the country's telecom service providers, he said though it was thought a few years ago, presently it was not possible because of their sheer size and the growing complexities in the merger or the acquisition processes in the sector.

UNI