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Idea Cellular taps Delhi mobile market

The unlisted Idea Cellular -- an equal venture of US giant AT&T Wireless Services Inc, India's Tata group and the Birla conglomerate -- will be the fourth mobile service provider in Delhi, the country's largest cellular market.

Idea Cellular, which posted its first cash profit in the year to March 2002, has invested Rs 5.0 billion ($104 million) in setting up telecoms infrastructure in Delhi and its suburbs.

"Our network is capable of handling 250,000 customers in the first phase," Jayant Bakshi, chief marketing officer at Idea Cellular, told reporters on the sidelines of the launch.

Overall, Idea will invest Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) in Delhi which forms a part of the more than Rs 4,600-crore (Rs 46-billion) it has ploughed into setting up a telecom network across six states.

Delhi's cellular subscriber base has grown to 1.4 million from 750,000 users in the past year.

Idea will compete in Delhi with Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, in which Singapore Telecommunications Ltd has a stake, state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and the Indian mobile unit of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate.

Subscribers in India's $5.0 billion cellular industry, billed as one of the fastest-growing markets globally this decade, grew 79 per cent year on year to 8.53 million users by the end of September.

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