Vodafone Plc to invest 2 bln USD in India

New Delhi, May 26: British telecom giant Vodafone Plc plans to invest two billion dollars in India to accelerate its penetration in the country with the introduction of low-cost handsets.

According to media reports, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, in a letter to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, said his company will make new capital investments of nearly two billion dollars in the first year of its operations.

The company will also put in place network-sharing arrangements with Bharti Airtel (and others if they wish to join) to accelerate rural coverage and bring the benefits of its global enterprise services to Indian customers.

A Vodafone spokesperson here, on being contacted, however refused to confirm or deny the reports.

''Vodafone has not made any announcement today. If we have anything to say, we will do it publicly,'' he told sources over the phone.

On the company's roll-out plan, he said ''things are being worked out''.

The company will be renamed Vodafone Essar and will market services using the Vodafone brand in due course, Mr Sarin reportedly told the finance minister.

The Vodafone Chief in March invited local mobile service providers like Bharti to build infrastructure for mobile penetration in the country, especially in the rural areas. ''Mittals and others can come and join us in building up mobile network infrastructure,'' he had said adding that Bharti could help Vodafone penetrate the rural market through infrastructure sharing.

After winning the bid for the much-coveted majority stake of Hutchison Telecom in the Indian venture, Vodafone had unilaterally announced Bharti as a preferred carrier for NLD and ILD traffic.

''India is a large country which is yet to be serve with mobile service. We will reach the potential rural areas by having network sharing agreements with local providers,'' Mr Sarin said.

The rechristened Vodafone Essar aims to become the number one mobile company in India by 2010, he said post the acquisition.

Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile operator in terms of subscribers outside China, had payed 11.1 billion for the 67 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd.

UNI