BPL US West plans to widen service in Maharashtra
Jayanta Saha
PUNE, December 28: BPL US West Cellular Limited, the 51:49 joint venture company, intends to widen its range of services in the Maharashtra telecom circle by introducing highway coverage towards the end of December 1998.
The company also plans to tap new customers by offering the pre-paid facility Insta-card, which was recently launched in the Mumbai region.
P Swaminathan, Head- BPL Mobile, Maharashtra told The Financial Express that the ongoing expansion plans would enable the company to offer its customers, linkages with at least 16 district headquarters.
"Installation of towers along all major highways is also being undertaken. The highway coverage will become fully operational between December 1998 to March 1999," he said.
The other cellular phone operator in the region, Birla AT&T offers this facility for the Pune-Mumbai and Pune-Nasik highways.
"We had prioritised establishing linkages in various cities before going in for highway connectivity," Swaminathan said. The company has targeted an increase in its customer base from the present 17,000 to about 25,000 by the end of financial year 1997-98. BPL US West claims to have about 50 to 56 per cent share of the market in the Maharashtra circle. (total market size 30,000 to 35,000).
The expansion cost of BPL-US West's project is about $600 million, with debt:equity ratio of the project being 1:1. At present, the company has an equity base of Rs 600 crore.
Swaminathan predicts the mobile phone market would grow at a rate of at least 50 per cent next year. He said customer perception regarding cellular phones (when the product was launched in January 1997) was that "the basic nature of the service is same" but that the trend had been changing.
He said, "the subscriber was earlier influenced by lower up-front costs, but with overall fall in equipment prices, product differentiation is now the key The user is now influenced not by price alone, but the combination of features offered by the cellular operator."
Swaminathan said the company would try to tap new segments like students and company executives by launching the pre-paid card.
"However care would be taken not to cut into our existing customer base. Therefore timing of the launch would become important," he added.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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