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New Delhi (pte049/12.04.2005/15:00) - Indian mobile phone operator Bharti http://www.bharti.com has announced that it aims to have 50 million mobile phone users in the "next few years". As the company reports in a press release on its website, it is expanding its fixed-line and broadband services in all of the country's 23 circles or geographical regions. "Wherever we have mobile phones, we can have our fixed-line and broadband service," a spokesman said. "There is a big churn of subscribers in the fixed-line sector which could be to our advantage."
According to the spokesman, the funds for expanding the fixed-line network will come from the 850-900 million dollar capital expenditure the company has earmarked for this financial year. He added that the company will double its base stations to 20,000 to deepen the company's mobile phone services in the country this year. For the base stations, Sweden's Ericsson, Finland's Nokia and Germany's Siemens are all frontrunners in the race for orders, he said.
"We have very deep relationships with Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens, so they could get the lion's share," said the spokesman. "But we will consider several other equipment manufacturers also." Bharti will launch services in the north-eastern state of Assam on Wednesday, with which it will have complete coverage of the country.
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