A top JTM official said the board of directors of Bharti Enterprises would ask Agarwal to take over immediately. Agarwal would be based in Bangalore to head the operations of JTM.

It is not known what would be the role of the present JTM president KS Reddy after the corporate restructuring. Reddy is likely to head the company's Andhra Pradesh cellular circle for a short while and may step down later, according to JTM sources. He had taken over as the president on January 6, 1999 from Frank D Hough, the then chief of the company.

Prior to that, Reddy was the vice-president (sales and marketing) of Andhra Pradesh circle. He had earlier worked with some government departments in New Delhi and was instrumental in helping JTM resolve crucial issues like licence fee, fund raising programme, etc.

"Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Mittal, during his short visit to the city recently, has indicated to a top official in Spice Telecom about the change in management in JTM,'' industry sources said.

The industry sources also added that with the change in management, JTM would become more aggressive either by going in for value-added services and products or slashing prices. To increase the subscriber-base, Spice Telecom, one of the cellular operators in Karnataka and Punjab circles, has already announced that it would invest Rs 100 crore for expanding its network in the state.