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Hughes Tele.com to dial into limited mobility
Neeraj Jha
Mumbai : Hughes Tele.com, the private basic operator in Maharashtra has said it will be making heavy investments to provide limited mobility using wireless in local loop (WLL) technology. "We'll definitely be making serious investments in CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) in Maharashtra," Mr Prakash C. Bajpai president & CEO told The Financial Express. Mr Bajpai did not disclose the extent of the proposed investment. "We need to finalise our numbers. We are working out our business plan," he said. Analysts, though, put the the total project cost at anything above Rs 300 crore given that the company will now be required to switch to the CDMA technology from its current TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) platform. "CDMA works on an entirely different network. You also require new equipment for it," said a Mumbai-based analyst. Though, technically, WLL can do with lesser number of base stations than GSM, the company is looking to set up more than 200-300 base stations in the next couple of years. Given thatGSM operators need 200 base stations to cover the whole of Mumbai, the company it seems is in no mood to take chances with quality. "We want to give super quality coverage.No patchy coverage for us," said Mr. Bajpai. Said a Mumbai-based analyst: "The more the number of base stations, the more subscribers one can pack in and more coverage one can have." Mr Bajpai said that the company is working out the cost. "Computations are on as to how much additional money we need. A lot will depend on the funds availability," he said. Analysts, however, do not see finance as much of a problem for the company. One, the front-end investments for the company are not much, since it can go on adding base stations as it goes along. Two, vendor debt will take care of much of the project cost. And three, the company can always fall back upon ICICI from which it has already been sanctioned a rupee debt underwriting loan of Rs 854.3 crore. Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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