Tata DoCoMo to go pan-India by end November

Tata DoCoMo, the GSM brand of Tata Teleservices Ltd, plans to cover seven more telecom circles this month to add to the 11 circles in which it already operates.

Tata Teleservices (TTSL) managing director Anil Sardana said at the launch of its services in Jharkhand that the company is investing Rs8,500 crore for making GSM services operational in 18 circles. The company started operations in July this year.

Tata DoCoMo is the company's GSM platform arising out of the Tata Group's alliance with Japanese telecom major NTT DoCoMo in November last year. TTSL has already received licences to operate GSM telecom services in 19 circles and has been allotted spectrum in 18.

The company also announced a "pay-for-what-you-use" model for subscribers with a pulse of one second and a price of one paisa per second. In Jharkhand, the company is covering over 100 towns and 3,000 villages.

"Our subscribers can get uninterrupted network coverage along 436km state highways and 75km of railway route and airport," said Sardana, adding that more than 700 base transceiver stations (BTSs) have been installed to ensure good connectivity.

There are eight telecom operators in Jharkhand - Reliance Communication, BSNL, Airtel, Tata Teleservices, Idea, Aircel, Vodafone and MTS. Till now, Tata Teleservices had only CDMA service. All these operators together have more than 70 lakh subscribers in the state with an estimated teledensity of 28.