Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL), which provides CDMA services under the brand name MTS, is looking to break even around mid-2014 in Kolkata and West Bengal. Break even would be typically on the back of growth in data services in the region.
MTS began operations in these two circles in 2009. Kolkata and West Bengal are considered as separate circles in telecom parlance. According to Sandeep Marwaha, Chief Operating Officer, (Kolkata and West Bengal), the company has seen a near 100 per cent growth in the data segment. This bodes well for its plan to break-even in the two circles.
Currently, MTS has CDMA offerings — in both voice and data segments – across nine telecom circles of the country. Kolkata and West Bengal contribute with a subscriber base of 2.7 million in the voice segment and around 1.5 million in the data segment, remain the largest contributors. Data offerings are through dongles and smartphones.
“We hope to break-even by mid-2014 with data service being the key factor. We are aggressively increasing our presence in different towns in West Bengal and also investing in setting up the requisite infrastructure,” Marwaha told
According to Marwaha, the company is looking to increase the capacity of its bandwidth (spectrum bandwidth) by nearly 50 per cent with its new spectrum of 3.75 Mhz.
The increased bandwidth would help the company cash in on new customers and ensure better penetration across towns in West Bengal.
The company, he said, has increased its presence to 33 towns with its high speed data (HSD) network connectivity. By end 2013, the some 23towns would be added to its high speed data network.
“We are also shoring up our marketing activity across different towns. Last year, we went slow with the expansion plans because of issues relating to availability of licences,” he added.
MTS, Marwaha said, would invest between Rs 8 lakh and Rs 10 lakh in each of the sites to ensure that its has high speed data network coverage in the region.