Tata Tele may break even in mid-2006

NEW DELHI: Tata Teleservices Ltd., India's second-largest provider of CDMA-based mobile facilities, expects to break even in the second half of 2006, a company official said on Tuesday.

Unlisted Tata Teleservices, a part of the salt-to-software Tata group, offers mobile and fixed-line services based on the CDMA platform in 20 of the 23 zones, or circles, that make up India's booming telecommunications market.

Soaring growth in India, the world's fastest growing mobile services market, has attracted several Asian and western carriers to the country.

Several companies, notably South Korea's SK Telecom, have held talks to buy a stake in Mumbai-based Tata Teleservices, but a deal has been elusive.

"We have had talks with financial investors looking for a small stake, to strategic investors looking for a bigger share," Mukund Govind Rajan, director at Tata Teleservices, told reporters.

"But we are just listening and we have not yet made up our mind."

India, Asia's third-largest economy, added 4.7 million new wireless users in January as carriers expanded their reach and offered cut-price phones to attract new customers.

Overall India's mobile user base exceeds 81 million customers.

About 380,590 customers chose mobile facilities offered by Tata Teleservices in January, pushing the firm's subscriber base to more than 4 million.

Tata Teleservices competes mainly with Reliance Infocomm Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd. and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.