BSNL aims for 200,000 mobile users in NE

GUWAHATI: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, India's top telecom firm by sales, expects to have around 200,000 mobile customers in the northeast by June, a top official said.

New Delhi-based BSNL, the second-ranked provider of GSM-based mobile services, has more than 4.89 million wireless customers across India. Its telecoms footprint covers the entire country except the two main markets of New Delhi and Bombay.

"We already have about 100,000 GSM subscribers since we began services in early February and we hope to sell around 100,000 new connections by June," BSNL's chief general manager for the region, B.K. Sinha, told Reuters.

Although wireless facilities have made deep inroads into the country, until now they were confined to Guwahati and Shillong in the northeast as security forces feared mobile phones could be used by guerrillas to evade capture and plan attacks more efficiently.

But in January cellular communications were introduced in the entire region of around 38 million people, where New Delhi-based BSNL is the only company offering such services.

Mobile services began in India in 1995 and the country now has more than 30 million users, making it one of the fastest growing markets globally.

The number is expected to touch at least 100 million by 2005 thanks to one of the lowest tariffs in the world.

The GSM unit of the powerful Reliance group also offers services in some parts of the states and has a user base of more than 52,000 customers.

Both BSNL and the Reliance group are among more than a dozen companies fighting for a slice of the expanding mobile pie in India.

© Reuters