"The company would look at investing between $1 billion to $800 million over the next three years, for starting up new projects both in cellular and fixed line services. Under the upcoming strategy, the company would apply for fresh basic licences in the southern grid, keeping in mind our interests in Andhra, Karnataka, and Tamil nadu," Mr Akhil Gupta, joint managing director of Bharti telecom said.

In the northern grid, the company is interested in circles such as Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, he added .The company is currently the basic services provider in Madhya Pradesh."We are in the process of finalising the exact strategy, with regard to the circles which would be applied for initially, although logically, it is Delhi and Haryana where the company would prefer to enter first," he said.

The company would look at various equity and debt mechanisms for funding the investments earmarked for the new projects, he said.Bharti's basic service strategy would be supported by the company's plans for expansion in the cellular market where Bharti would bid for the fourth licence along with its partner Singapore telecom, he said. The company currently offers cellular services in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karanataka.

The current equity structure of Bharti televentures has 67 per cent with Bharti Telecom Ltd, 13 per cent with E M Warbug, 14 per cent with Singtel and six per cent with Asian infrastructure fund.

In Bharti telecom, in turn, Singapore telecom has 20 per cent stake and Bharti enterprise the balance 80 per cent stake. Bharti recently announced a major restructuring initiative to separate its services business from the manufacturing in view of improving bottomline and meet market requirements.Under the restructuring process, it was decided that Bharti telecom would concentrate only on services part, both cellular and basic while Bharti Teletech would look after the manufacturing and marketing of the group.