Hutch expands staff in Karnataka

BANGALORE: Hutchison Essar is planning to increase its call center staff in Bangalore, during the coming days. Presently Hutch has 42 people in the Bangalore call center to cater its Karnataka subscribers and plans to increase its strength to about 400. This would ensure the third largest cellular company in India to attend to the 1lakh subscribers it has in Karnataka much faster.

Asim Ghosh, Managing Director, Hutchison Essar, was quick to add, "Don’t go by the number of subscribers against the call center staff strength, because almost 80 percent of the subscriber base is from the pre-paid segment. These subscribers don’t enjoy all the benefits of the post-paid subscribers."

Being the fourth cellular operator in the state, Hutch entered the Karnataka circle last year and has so far invested Rs 500 crore. Promising to double the investment it plans to expand its reach from the present 58 towns to 62 cities and towns in the state.

The company had recently announced investment close to Rs 1,600 crore in its Indian operations and also go public during the first half of 2004. "We need the capital and it would also help us in our brand building exercise," added Ghosh, regarding the plan to go public but refused to give further details of the size of the IPO terming it "premature".

The company is also revamping its IT operations supporting its operations. A new billing system and a Oracle based CRM is being put in place at different circles from where the company operates. It is adding two more circles, Rajasthan and Haryana to its existing 11 circles and is in talks with various partners to buy off the stake to become wholly owned in India.