Aditya Birla-owned telecom company Idea Cellular will be investing around ₹ 5,500 crore as capex for the current fiscal (FY 2015-16).
According to P Lakshminarayana, Chief Operating Officer – Corporate, Idea Cellular, the investments will be towards strengthening its infrastructure including setting up of new ones across circles like Delhi and Kolkata, where Idea has begun providing 3G services through its own network.
“The guidance outlook for capex is around ₹ 5,000-₹ 5,500 crore,” he said.
Lashminarayana was in the city to launch the company’s 3G services here on its own network.
Idea, currently, has a presence in all 22 telecom circles. It, however, provides 3G services in 21 (excluding Odisha) of these.
While it has spectrum licences in 13 circles, in the remaining eight it has tied up with Airtel and Vodafone to provide 3G services under an intra-circle roaming (ICR) arrangement.
Investment in Bengal
Meanwhile, the company said it was looking to invest around ₹ 380 crore this fiscal for capacity (network) expansion in Kolkata and Rest of Bengal. Around 1,200-plus 2G towers will be set up this fiscal across these two circles.
(In telecom parlance, West Bengal is divided into Kolkata and Rest of Bengal)
According to Anish Roy, CEO (East), Idea, the company has invested ₹ 2,059 crore so far (on a cumulative basis).
“We will also be investing in setting up our own 3G network in the Kolkata circle,” he said adding that 2,000-odd 3G sites (towers) over a “period of time”.
Work on setting up its own 3G network will begin September onwards (from third quarter of this fiscal) at a ball-park investment of ₹ 100 crore to ₹ 130 crore.
So far, Idea has been providing 3G services based on its ICR pact with Airtel and Vodafone. It recently won the 2,100 MHZ spectrum to provide its own 3G services here.
“The ICR will slowly be phased out after we get own network ready,” he added.
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