Russian telco Sistema to invest $1.5 billion in mobile services in India

The largest public diversified corporation in Russia and the CIS, Sistema, today said that it would invest another $1.5 billion in India and also announced the launch of its CDMA mobile services in 800 MHz in Rajasthan along with Shyam Telelink with which it has a 74:26 joint venture.

Sistema, which has already invested $1 billion in Shyam, will pump in another $1.5 billion this year to expand its network to all 22 circles in India. At present it plans to capture 7 per cent of the Rajasthan mobile telephony market, which translates to roughly more than 35 million subscribers by 2012.

The Shyam group and Sistema had floated the joint venture last year to provide mobile telephony services under the 'Rainbow' brand. The companies say they may rebrand the services under the MTS brand, through which Sistema operates in Russia.

MTS is the premier cellphone operator in Russia. Sistema is also provider of fixed-line services under the Comstar brand, and has a technology firm 'Sitronics'

Shyam Telelink has been allocated spectrum in 22 Indian circles which covers 28 administrative states and 7 union territories.

The joint venture will roll out its mobile telephony services based on CDMA technology by the middle of next year and will also keep its options open on providing GSM services, for which it has already applied for the GSM spectrum, said Rajiv Mehrotra, promoter of the Shyam group.