Airtel To Focus On Rural Markets

[@ksh@T 20]

COIMBATORE: As part of its expansion plans in Tamil Nadu, Airtel has proposed to increase its rural coverage from the current 10,000 villages to 17,000 villages by March 2008, a senior company executive said on Wednesday.

The cell site count, which was at 4000 in March last, would go up to over 6,700 by March '08 and in terms of urban areas almost 750 towns in the State, would be covered by that period Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO, TN, Mobiles Services, Bharti Airtel Ltd, told the media.

Nearly 65 per cent of the rural population of Tamil Nadu would be covered in the present expansion, Rajiv said adding the company has plans to increase the coverage to 90 per cent in the next fiscal.

In the seven districts of Western Region of the State,in and around Coimbatore, the cell sites have been doubled in '07-08, going from 1100 in Mar '07 to over 2,200 by Mar '08.

On the expected increase in the customer base following the expansion, he said that in the last few months, about 2.5 lakh customers of the State have opted for Airtel every month, totalling to over 5.3 million, till now. Once rural connectivity is increased, the growth rate would be more, but not according to urban growth, he said.

With over two million additions every month for the last few months, the overall customer base at National level has crossed 57 million, Rajiv said.

[Honest 836]

^^^

My dear friends, it seems that Airtel is now going on the path of Reliance's TOTAL NETWORK.

Regards.