The country will move to 100 million phones in two years and 200 million in five years", Mittal told newspersons on the sidelines of 'Pan IIT 2004' event. Bharti would extend its Airtel services to Bihar and Jharkhand next month, he said.
"We will cover North-east and Assam by March. By the end of this fiscal, we will cover 5000 small and big cities."
Airtel is now present in 20 out of 23 circles and has a subscribers base of 95 lakh. Recently it rolled out services in J&K and Orissa.
Mittal said three-fourth of the earmarked investment of Rs 3500 crore (Rs 35 billion) for the current fiscal has been already made in rolling out networks.
Asked if tariffs could come down further, Mittal said, "It is already in paise... It is yet to be seen how much lower it can be brought down to. Access Deficit Charge and licence fee should be lowered. Today a telecom user is paying levies of 35-40 per cent.
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