The company currently holds a 22.5 per cent stake in BCL which is one of the two cellular telephone service providers in Delhi. The majority partner is Bharti TeleVentures Ltd which holds 51 per cent equity in the venture.

Sources told The Financial Express that BT had filed a proposal with the FIPB for picking up additional equity in the company on Monday.

The Delhi cellular licence held by BCL under the brand name Airtel is understood to be worth around $275 million. BT had bought its 22.5 per cent stake in BCL in January 1997 for about 60 million pounds.

When contacted, BT India managing director Arun Seth confirmed that the company would be hiking its stake, but declined to confirm the exact buyout figure.

Among the foreign equity holders, Emtel hasthe maximum shareholding after BT. The UK-based Mobile Systems International holds 4.5 per cent, Italian company Stet holds 2 per cent and the balance 3 per cent is held by non-resident Indians. Emtel is a joint venture between a Mauritian company and Luxembourg's Millicom International Cellular SA.

Eighty per cent equity in Bharti TeleVentures is held by Bharti Telecom and the balance 20 per cent by Stet. Bharti Telecom is now 100 per cent owned by chairman Sunil Mittal and his family members after the buyout of public shares earlier this year.

The additional stake will give BT a stronger foothold in the Indian market and much more say in the company. Both BT and Emtel have two nominees on the board of BCL. After the buyout, BT will have four nominees in the 10-member board. The company's chief financial officer and network head are also BT nominees.

Airtel has over 1.30 lakh subscribers in Delhi and claims to have an edge over its rival Essar. It became the first cellular company to report a marginalRs 2 crore profit last year in spite of difficult market conditions and a scenario where the number of users has not been growing and the usage time has come down from an average of 240 minutes per subscriber per month to 150 minutes per month.

BCL was the second company after BPL to launch an intelligent network service. Recently, it also launched free global roaming in 11 countries. Besides, it offers manual roaming across 66 countries via CellNet, a BT cellular venture in the UK.

The Bharti group also holds the licence for cellular telephony in Himachal Pradesh and basic services in Madhya Pradesh and has joint ventures for V-Sat and Internet with BT. In due course, Airtel hopes to take full advantage of this relationship as it will have an edge in bundling its services with other communication means like V-Sat and ISP as and when it is permitted.