Hutch plans Rs 300 cr Gujarat investment

AHMEDABAD: Cellular services provider Hutch has drawn plans to pump in around Rs 300 crore in Gujarat circle for the year 2004 primarily for network capacity enhancement and upgradation of its call centre and billing systems.
“Almost 80 per cent of the investment would go towards increasing network coverage by adding around 300 cellsites to the existing 650-odd cellsites.We also plan to put up a 300 seat call centre at our Ellisbridge headquarters,� Sanjoy Mukerji, chief operating officer, Fascel Ltd, told TNN.
Hutch, which ramped up its call centre from 60 seats to 130 seats in 2003, is now planning to increase this to 300 seats by December 2004.
At present, the cellular player covers 200 towns with 650 cellsites and would increase it to 250 towns with 950 cellsites by 2004 end.
Investments would also be made in upgrading billing systems, increasing the number of exclusive one-stop Hutch shops to 50 from 29, most of which would be put up in upcountry locations, and hiking teleshops (sales points) from 217 to 400 by the end of the year, Mukerji added.
“With tariffs being market driven and not under our control, we have decided to focus aspects that are under our control. The thrust thus will be on customer services initiatives, network coverage and value added services to reach out to the customer,� he explained.
As part of this, the player intends to put up recharge zones in trains allowing customers to recharge their cellphones while on the move. At present, Hutch has put up 600 recharge zones in public places including Volvo buses plying in Gujarat.
Hutch, which has already invested around Rs. 1135 crores in Gujarat by December 2003, had invested around Rs 250 crore in 2003. It has a total subscriber base of 8.57 lakh users in Gujarat.