Telecom service providerAircel plans to cover 35 key towns of Odisha under its 3G network by the end of October as part of its expansion exercise in the state.
“After launching 3G services in Odisha in top 10 towns initially, another 15 towns have been covered as of now. We will be adding 10 more towns latest by October end taking the total number of towns with 3G networks to 35”, Rajiv Gupta, Business Head -Odisha, Aircel told media persons.
The towns to be included are Puri, Bargarh, Baripada, Bhawanipatana, Bolangir, Chatia, Jajpur town, Nalco Nagar, Titlagarh, Nayagarh etc.
Aircel will add 510 new 3G sites by end of this year taking the total count of network sites to about 3500 in the state. Gupta declined to give the exact amount of investment on the expansion plans.
” About eighty% of the 3G sites will be on sharing basis and the balance will be the planned sites”, he added.
Aircel has 4.1 million customer base in the state. Out of them, 1.2 million consumers are data users.
” We estimate that with the aggressive expansion plan we will be able to add two lakh new consumers by the end of this year. We have added 1.5 lakh new subscribers in last six months”, Gupta said.
The telecom operator had launched 4G LTE services for B2B customers in the state last year.
“We have a B2B customer base of about 100 companies using our 4G services. The ecosystem for the 4G services has not developed in the country . We have 20 mhz spectrum for Odisha and the 4G broadband services will be launched soon in the state”, Gupta stated. Aircel has tentative plans to launch LTE services in Sambalpur, Cuttack and Rourkela.
The telecom operator enjoys 10.6% of revenue market share and consumer share of 16% in the state.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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