Videocon Mobile Services will launch high-speed data 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) in Haryana and Punjab by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014-15. The company has a Unified Licence, which allows it to provide all kind of services including 3G and 4G. The 4G services will be launched in all six circles, where it bagged spectrum in the November 2012 auction.
With this, the company to expand aggressively by buying spectrum in the upcoming auctions or even sharing spectrum. For expansion, Videocon Telecom Chief Executive Arvind Bali said that we will surely be participating in the upcoming auctions to acquire some additional spectrum. However, the company will need more 1800MHz spectrum for an increasing customer base, and may reserve more for 4G or high speed Internet services depending on what spectrum guidelines turn out to be.
In the meantime, on November 2012, Videocon Mobile won spectrum in six telecom circles - Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh East and West - for Rs 2,221.44 crore.
Bali said he expected bandwidth sharing norms to be released before the auction, possibly as early as January. "It may be worth it to share rather than buy ourselves at this stage."
According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the company added 1.07 lakh subscribers and its base at the end of September stood at 59.41 lakh.
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He further added, the voice market in these regions has reached saturation and they are not quite ready for 4G even though the company is working towards those investments.
According to a report, Videocon has targeted to achieve a 'fair market share' (FMS) in the services areas such as Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat. In addition, FMS amounts to 12.5 per cent subscriber share in Haryana, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, where there are a total of eight operators, and 10 per cent market share in Gujarat, which has a total of 10 mobile service providers.
