Two years after acquiring Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) -- formerly Hughes Tele.com -- the Tatas have decided to defocus on fixed line telecom services.
Y V L Pandit, chief operating officer, TTML, said: "We will not make any fresh investments in fixed line telecom services. We will continue to serve existing customers."
The company will now focus on the CDMA 1X technology platform for fixed wireless and mobile services, and is betting big on this business.
TTML is planning to invest Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) in 2004-05. It has invested Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) as of March 31, 2004. "We have yet to decide on the structure of investment and it can be a combination of debt and equity. The company has already achieved a financial closure of Rs 1,350 crore (Rs 13.50 billion)."
The proposed investment is being made towards wireless network expansion, billing system, IT infrastructure, customer care facilities and to increase its footprint to 150 locations across Maharashtra.
TTML has over 200,000 fixed line customers dominated by corporates and small and medium enterprises.
The company currently has a presence in key cities including Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Nashi
k with a subscriber base of over 500,000.
Pandit said that the company intends to achieve 20 per cent market share on growth of the mobile industry by end of September 2004 and 15
per cent in the rest of Maharashtra.
"There has been a 100 per cent growth in 2003-04 in the mobile segment. However, this year it is going to change and we expect growth to be in the range of 4 to 5 per cent a month," Pandit pointed out.
TTML is planning to expand its capacity to cater to over 1 million subscribers by September 2004. Besides this, it is also planning to provide seamless roaming across all its circles by the month end. Moreover, Internet in the fixed wireless phones is also on the cards.
"We are also working on the pre-paid on fixed wireless and it is around the corner," he added.
On its tariffs offered on mobile services, Pandit in his presentation said that there were no hidden costs. However, the tariffs were up to 55 per cent lower than the GSM schemes and up to 32 per cent lower than the other CDMA mobile operators.