Telcos and Cellcos in expansion mode

Looks like telcos and cellcos in India are in no mood to slowdown. Reliance Communication’s GSM arm, Reliance Telecom has announced to expand aggressively in 4,000 cities and towns. Reliance has also sought a license fees of Rs150 crores and Rs100 crores for 3G licenses for Metro circles(Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkatta) and Category A circles respectively.

Global long distance company AT&T has got approval from the government to launch its servcies in India. Tata Tele said it would invest Rs2,500 crores in expansion during 2006-07. Maxis which has applied for 11 more licenses after acquiring Aircel plans to invest Rs2,500 crores. Idea cellular which is bleeding with a $1 Billion loan has already announced to have a PAN India footprint and has applied for necessary licenses.

Historically, telcos and cellcos have not been extremely profitable due to government regulations and innovative applications of disruptive technologies. On this day looks like their will be 6 companies in the GSM segment with all India operations – Bharti-Airtel, BSNL, Hutch-Essar, Idea Cellular, Reliance Telecom and Maxis controlled Aircel. Tata & Reliance Infocomm in the CDMA are already having all India operations. WoW! The ultimate benificeary will be the Indian consumer.