Tata Teleservices to invest Rs8,000 crore in GSM roll-out

Mumbai: Tata Teleservices is planning to invest over Rs8,000 crore ($2 billion) in to roll out GSM-based mobile services nationwide over the next two years.

The company, which currently offers CDMA platform, plans to launch services in the GSM space by this year-end. Besides, the company also plans to enter value-added services (VAS) space with the rollout of 3G services next year.

Tata Teleservices, however, said it was concerned about the slow pace of spectrum allocation by the government.

''Over the next two years, the company will be putting in $2 billion for setting up nationwide GSM network. We are rolling out the network very quickly wherever we have been given spectrum so far," Tata Teleservices managing director Anil Sardana said.

The company has received spectrum in five circles even though it had applied for a pan-India allocation. He said the delay in allocation in other circles was putting the company at ''competitive disadvantage" vis-a-vis its arch rival Reliance Communications, which has already made a soft launch of GSM services last week.

''We do understand that there are security concerns in some of the states/circles where spectrum cannot be allocated. But wherever it is available there should not be any delay as the government had earlier announced in January this year that enough spectrum is available in most of the circles to accommodate all the new players as well to meet the needs of the existing operators," he added.