Malaysia's Maxis Communication to invest $500 crore in India

Kolkata, May 5 (UNI) Maxis Communications, Malayasia's top mobile phone firm, has proposed to invest USD 400 to 500 crore in India by 2009-10 to expand its network, company's chief executive Sandip Das said here.

"We plan to beef up our presence in India in the next two years," Mr Das told a news conference today.

He said the proposed investment would be a mix of debt and equity.

Maxis is the 74 per cent stakeholder in Aircel Cellular Limited, which launched its GSM mobile service in Kolkata today.

Aircel operates in ten telecom circles in the country with Apollo Hospitals Enterprises enjoying the remaining shares.

Mr Das said Aircel would set up 14,000 telecom towers by the end of this fiscal to expand its network. At present the company has 7,000 towers.

" We see the Indian telecom market growing further and we want to grab this opportunity," he said.

Mr Das said India was the world's fastest growing mobile market with telecom firms adding a record 10.16 million wireless subscribers in March, taking the total to 261.1 million -- second only to China.

Aircel Chief Operating Officer Gurdeep Singh said the company had 10.8 million subscribers in India and had earned a revenue of 50 crore Dollars in 2007.

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