IDEA to invest 1,000 cr in Odisha

Telecom services provider IDEA Cellular on Wednesday said it plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore in Orissa in the next three years to expand its footprint.

IDEA Cellular, part of the Aditya Birla Group, today launched its GSM mobile services in Orissa. "IDEA will invest Rs 1,000 crore in the next three years in Orissa," its Chief Marketing Officer Pradeep Shrivastava told media.

He added that IDEA's network would cover over 360 towns and villages in Orissa by next month, and would rapidly expand to cover 2,200 towns and villages by March 2010. At present, there are 350 cell sites. They would increase to 865 in the next 45 days.

IDEA would introduce its complete range of mobile telephony products and services for over 39 million people in the state.

The operator now covers over 80 per cent of the telephony potential of the country and is the third largest private GSM player with over 41 million subscribers across 15 telecom circles.

IDEA would develop customer service with a robust retail network comprising exclusive 'MY IDEA Stores', IDEA Points and other outlets. The retail network would be expanded to over 18,500 outlets by March 2010, he said.

Source: Economic Times