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Bhubaneswar, March 30: Telecom operators are gearing up to cash in on the Orissa mobile phone market.

While Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to provide another 6 lakh connections in Orissa by July-end, Essar Spacetel wants to start its GSM services by the year-end, making it the sixth mobile service provider in the state. The last one to roll out its telecom services in Orissa was Tata Indicom in January. Bharti?s AirTel, Reliance Infocomm?s IndiaMobile and Reliance Telecom?s Smart mobile services are already present.

BSNL, the largest mobile service provider in the state with 2.95 lakh connections, has lined up an aggressive strategy to increase its market share. In April alone, it plans to give away 1 lakh mobile pre-paid SIM cards. ?We would take the state by a storm,? said S. K. Agrawal, general manager of the BSNL mobile services.

Of the 173 tehsils, BSNL covers 150. In the next four months, it would cover the remaining 23, said Agrawal. BSNL, which is focusing on rural areas, would cover at least 280 of the 314 blocks.

It will add 590 base terminal stations to the existing 290. In addition to its main switch centres, BSNL will have three more switches in Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur. ?We will give seamless coverage on the entire length of the national highways and railway lines to avoid call dropping,? said Agrawal.

BSNL would outsource its customer care services that would be accessible 24 hours. From April, a customer care centre would be opened in Bhubaneswar.

Other players in Orissa are worried over BSNL?s plans. To counter the challenge, Reliance Telecom is gearing up to cover 100 more towns in addition to the current 27 by the year-end at an investment of about Rs 100 crore. Reliance Telecom?s Orissa circle head Sanjiv Swain said his company would add 72 more towns by June-end. In its next rollout, Reliance is targeting the farming community. With post-paid schemes like Rs 99 rental and pre-paid schemes with free outgoing calls from one Reliance phone to another, Swain said it would be able to survive in the cut-throat mobile market.

Swain said retaining customers would be the biggest challenge. CDMA player Reliance Infocomm, sister concern of Reliance Telecom, is also gearing up to expand its existing customer base of 1.07 lakh in 32 towns.