Tata eyes 100 million subscriber base by 2010

New Delhi, Aug 5: Tata Teleservices has said it expects its subscriber base to touch the 100-million mark by 2010.

''Though our current market share is nine per cent, our incremental share has been increasing by a million customers each month,'' company Chief Operating Officer Debashis Sur told the sources.

The right technology at the right price will help in increasing the penetration of the services, he added.

Talking about the 3G policy, Mr Sur said the platform would offer more applications to the consumer along with greater speed. ''This would increase the scope of competition and the consumer will get more services at competitive rates, giving him more options to choose from,'' Mr Sur said.

When asked about the slow growth of CDMA technology compared to GSM, he said that it was simply the time factor. ''GSM has been around longer. CDMA is a newer technology and Tata is yet a younger player,'' he said.

Tata Telecom is aggressively looking towards the competition.

''We are geared to enter the North-east region. Everything is ready.

We just need the license to roll out the services.'' The telecom sector has been witnessing a sharp growth over the last few years. ''The next spurt of growth will come from rural India. The market offers opportunities and it will fuel the engine of growth,'' said Mr Sur.

''But you cannot overlook the urban market. The cities continue to rank ahead in the subscriber base volume,'' he added.

UNI