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Spreading wings -- Airtel to cover 40 towns by March 2001
Our eFE Bureau
Hyderabad : With the cellular market growing by leaps and bounds, Bharti Mobile's Airtel, one of the cell operator in Andhra Pradesh, is vying for a major share. The growth of Airtel's share in the sate is expanding and will attain the number one slot by September 2001, according to I B Mehra, CEO, Airtel, AP. Speaking to The Financial Express, he said that Airtel will be launching WAP-enabled services and e-commerce by December this year. It has decided to expand services to 40 towns from 14 by March 2001. It aims to reach 75 towns by March 2002 and remain to be called preferred service provider, he said. Airtel has earmarked an investment of Rs 250 crore to be invested over a year's time for the expansion and other infrastructure facilities, he said adding as part of its brand building exercise Airtel has roped in IMRB for market research.Going by a dictum `quality first', Airtel has chalked out few marketing strategies for its growth plans, including expanding to new towns; enhanced distribution network through pre-paid and new connectivity; better products and services; optimisation of network through speedy connectivity and accessibility with superior services like intelligent call centres and call handling; better training and development with instant customer care; and superior products offering the right products to the right people. The company also will enter into optic fibre cables by initially covering 1,500 km in the phase I by March 2001 and may increase it to 2,500 km by December 2001 in Andhra Pradesh, Mr Mehra said. After attaining the top position in Karnataka, Bharti Mobile's subscriber base in Andhra Pradesh is expected to touch 2,00,000 as and when the value addition plans kick off, he said. The other value-added services offered by Airtel include roaming services in 33 countries, SMS with 44 options, voice mail and e-mail services. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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