Chennai, Apr 4, 2004

Aircel Cellular Limited is all set to expand its operations to become one of the leading mobile operators across the country by the end of the calendar year, even as it crossed one-million subscriber base (both in pre-paid and post-paid categories) in Chennai and Tamilnadu telecom circles as on 31 March this year.

'We will be expanding our line capacity to three million by 15 January next year, thereby becoming the first private operator to reach this number.

Also, we will be introducing a new scheme in January next year in which a

a subscriber who has been using Aircel for a minimum of four months would be given three free Aircel connections which can be gifted to women or children below the age of 15,' said C Sivasankaran, chairman, Sterling Group of Companies which owns the Aircel Cellular Limited.

Sivasankaran was addressing a press conference here yesterday on the immediate plans of Aircel and his general corporate philosophy of 'customer orientation' that guides his business interests.The free Aircel connections would have no rental charges and come with free intra and inter circle SMS. A flat rate of Re one per minute would be charged for outgoing calls.

'In Tamilnadu there is a healthy competition with all the major players like Reliance, Tata, Bharati and BSNL vying for bigger market share. This is the right time for us to compete, think and provide solutions for the unmet demands of the customers,' he said.

In a State with a six crore population, Aircel has chalked out plans to become the first private operator to breach the one crore subscriber mark in the immediate future.'Our simple idea is to innovate in Tamilnadu, replicate in other States and integrate our operations under one comprehensive solution,' he said.

Aircel is expected to get licences from TRAI to operate in eight more States comprising telecom circles in Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Northeast, UP West, UP East, Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Also on the cards is a two and a half inch high-tech wrist band divided into two halves to keep track of children throughout the day. The innovative product would enable subscribers of Aircel to talk to their wards anytime.

'We will be introducing this product by 15 January after getting clearance from TRAI,' he said. RPG had just 5,000 erlang (for 2.2 lakh Chennai subscribers), but now Aircel was in the process of expanding it to 20,000 erlang.

Not for sale, right now

'The potential buyers are asking Aircel for Rs 1,700 crore which is not agreeable to my people. They are asking why not 2,500 crore,' he said ruling out Aircel being sold at the current market price. Declaring that Hutch, Idea and Bharati had evinced interest in Aircel, he said 'I am not here to sell. I will continue to build it to three million capacity and offer many innovative services.'

But he added that one creates assets to sell and realise value. 'In this new economy you buy only to sell after value addition. In last 25 years, our group has followed the highest standards of making customers successful, and in that process earn some money,' he explained. Declaring his aversion to enter IPO market to raise funds for his operations, he said there was no need for him to use public money as long as he could mobilise internal resources.

The NRI industrialist also hinted that he is close to clinching a deal with Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Sons Limited, on the acquisition of the group's Barista Coffee Company.