Hutch to invest $100 m in Punjab

NEW DELHI: Hutchison Essar Telecom Ltd, India's third largest provider of mobile services, said it will invest more than $100 million to roll out wireless facilities in the northwestern state of Punjab.

Hutchison Essar, 49 percent owned by Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa group, provides mobile services to more than six million users in India, the world's fastest growing major mobile market.

"Punjab has the highest mobile penetration amongst states," Managing Director Asim Ghosh said in a statement.

India's under-penetrated mobile industry, which is made up of 23 circles, each equal to a large state or a city, has more than 38 million customers and the number is forecast to expand to 100 million by 2005.

Punjab, India's food bowl, is among the four circles in the country where wireless customers exceed fixed-line users. Some of the lowest mobile tariffs in the world are luring in about 1.3 million users each month into the market.

Carriers such as Hutchison Essar, which recently bought over smaller rival Aircel Ltd for about $350 million and Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd are expanding their networks furiously to meet booming demand for wireless services.

Hutchison Essar, which plans to float a public issue of about 15 billion rupees in late 2004 or early 2005, offers wireless services based on the dominant Global Standard for Mobile communication platform in 11 telecoms circles.

The firm, which also competes with state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and the powerful business groups Reliance and Tatas, plans to roll out services in two more circles.