India’s Bharti Airtel to invest $5 billion in mobile services and infrastructure till 2010
By Dusan Belic on Sunday, February 1st, 2009 at 5:52 AM PST In General
Just as we wrote about China’s ambitious plans to invest tons of money in 3G networks, we’ve heard India won’t be on standby as well. As a matter of fact, the country’s leading telecom, Bharti Airtel, plans to invest around $5 billion in mobile services and infrastructure till 2010.
According to the telco’s deputy chief executive Akhil Gupta, about $2.5 billion has been earmarked for mobile services and approximately $2.5-3 billion for the passive infrastructure, which is run by Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers — an independent tower company formed by Bharti, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and Idea.
However, the billions mentioned above does not include the amount the company will spend during 3G auctions.
As a sidenote, Bharti Airtel has recently received spectrum for second generation (2G) mobile services in nine more circles and eight applications are still pending with the Department of Telecom…
[Via: India Times]
