In fact, JT Mobiles and Spice Telecom had planned to utilise the latter's cellular backbone on a revenue sharing basis. It is understood that both the companies have found it difficult to frame the nitty-gritty of the deal for the purpose.

Besides this, JTM is yet to reach many major locations in Karnataka, wherein the cellular backbone is being implemented. Spice Telecom deputy managing director NK Raveendran said, ``Now we are not pursuing talks with JT Mobile to share the backbone.'' But no official confirmation is available from JT Mobile on this account.

The company has completed around 40 per cent of the backbone work. The remaining 500 km portion out of the total 900 km is expected to be completed within few months. PublicCommunications Network division of Siemens (SPCNL) bagged the contract to implement the project.

The completion of the remaining portion will mark the reach of Spice Telecom services to Coorg, Mysore, Chithradurga and Davengere. This fiscal it will also extend its services to Badhrawathi and Harihar in Karnataka. At present it operates in 14 cities with a total subscriber base of 40,000.

Spice Telecom on Friday received the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) permission to unveil international automatic roaming facility to its customers in a strategic alliance with foreign partners. The company is now awaiting for the nod from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL).

To offer international roaming facility, it has tied-up with Mobile One of Singapore, Orange of the UK and another company based in Hong Kong. However, the preliminary talks with Singapore Telecom (SingTel) for the purpose did not materialise.

The facility is available for subscribers in the Karnatakaand Punjab circles, for which the company holds the cellular service licence. Currently companies like RPG, Maxtouch and AirTel offer international roaming facilities for its subscribers.

Spice Telecom is looking at enhancing its equity capital from the present Rs 450 crore to re-pay short-term debts of Rs 210 crore raised from a consortium of financial institutions lead by GE Capital. It has also to repay suppliers' credit of $140 million raised from Motorola and Siemens by next year.

Earlier it had augmented its equity capital from Rs 370 crore to Rs 450 crore to meet its financial requirements. The company is a three-way joint venture between Modicorp Pvt Ltd, Distacom Communications and Motorola with a 51:39:10 equity stake.