India's leading private sector cellular operator, Airtel is targeting a mobile customer base of 25 million in the next two years, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group managing director, Bharti Enterprises, said on Wednesday.
Bharti Tele-ventures, the country's largest GSM player, has at present a customer base close to 10 million mobile customers, Mittal said.
"There are only five operators world-wide who have been able to reach the 25 million mark. The way Bharti is growing, we are hoping to touch 25 million customers in the next two years," he said.
Asked if there was room for further tariff reduction, he said "Indian tariffs are by far the lowest in the world. We are operating only at 10 per cent of the tariff in the world and are able to maintain our operating costs."
Indian tariffs were much less compared to those in the European countries and even China, he said, adding "We are more or less at the bottom of the barrel as far as tariffs are concerned."
The tariffs were being lowered by operators who were not doing well and it was not due to pressure from the customers, he said.
Bharti would be launching its services in Orissa by next March for which necessary permission has been received.
Bihar and Jharkhand would be covered by early January, followed by Assam and the North-East by March 2005, Mittal said.
Bharti had launched its services in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and had an "emotional" launch in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
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