Birla: New ringtone

Mumbai, Aug. 20: Idea Cellular today launched its services in the Mumbai circle with a projected capital expenditure of Rs 800 crore.

The fifth-ranking Indian GSM player plans to offer services in Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Orissa over the next six months. Later this year, Idea will begin operations in Karnataka and Punjab through Spice Communications.

“In this year, we will have a national footprint with operations in most circles excepting Bengal, Assam, the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir. Idea’s footprint now crosses over 70 per cent of India’s mobile telephony market,” said Aditya Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla.

The company already has a licence for operations in Bengal but is awaiting spectrum. Idea opened in Mumbai with 1,000 cell sites with capacity to offer the service to 1.5 million subscribers.

The company will retail from 15,000 outlets and 60 Idea stores. Targeting a 20 per cent share in the net subscriber additions in Mumbai and dissatisfied customers of other service providers, Idea expects to break even in two years in this circle.