Bharti to add 30,000 cell sites

New Delhi, Apr 27 (UNI) Telecom major Bharti Airtel today said it will set up additional 30,000 cell sites in all the 23 circles of the country greatly enhancing the quality of service and also making inroads into rural India.

''About 60-65 per cent of these will be set up in rural areas,'' Bharti Airtel Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Mittal said adding that the leading private telecom provider will continue to intensify its push into rural areas.

The company reported annual revenues of Rs 18,520 crore, an increase of 59 per cent year-on-year, mainly attributing it to its highest-ever subscriber addition of 18 million during the fiscal.

''We will set up 30,000 stations in 2007-08 in addition to the existing 40,000 sites. We have also revised our capital expenditure (capex) for the fiscal to 3-3.5 billion dollars,'' Mr Mittal told reporters here.

Bharti Airtel increased its market share to 22.9 per cent at the end of this fiscal from 20.4 per cent a year earlier.

Its net profit during Q4FY07 zoomed by 98 per cent at Rs 1,353 crore from Rs 682 crore a year ago.

Bharti added 5.3 million subscribers during the quarter ending March 31, 2007.

UNI