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Spice investing Rs 100-cr

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE: Spice Telecom, one of the two licensees for mobile phone service in Karnataka, will be making an additional capital investment of Rs 100 crores over the next two years towards expanding service and strengthening infrastructure.



The decision comes in anticipation of the expected growth in the subscriber base following the lower tariff structure and exemption of cell-phone users from paying for incoming calls. ``Calling party pays (CPP) is slated to come into effect on November 1. Spice expects a huge increase in subscriber base and cellular phone usage,'' said Spice Chief Executive Officer Fergus Wilmer.



Of this, the joint venture partners Modi Wellvest and Distacom, after buying over the stake of Motorola, the investor in the consortium have invested an equity of Rs 505.4 crore towards network capital equipment and licence fees. Mr Wilmer also added that the company would also continue its geographical roll-out by including two new towns, Gulbarga and Madikeri, to the network before January. This will add 100 villages to the Spice umbrella.



The network, equipped with 100 cell sites in the State, presently covers 33 cities and 490 villages. Spread across 14 districts, it covers 68 per cent of the Karnataka urban area, and 80 per cent of the State's population. It plans to cover six additional centres Raichur, Bagalkot, Kolar, Bijapur, Virajpet and Karwar by 2000.

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