By IANS,
New Delhi : India’s consumer durables giant Videocon will roll out mobile telephone services from Chennai Aug 15, Venugopal N. Dhoot, chairman of the Videocon Industries, said Wednesday.
“We have got the spectrum in Chennai, and will roll out our mobile service from Aug 15 this year, and will later move to states like Karnataka, Kerala and Orissa,” Dhoot told reporters here on the sidelines of an interactive session on “India Inc.-Vision 2020”.
He said his firm’s foray into the telecom sector would cover 22 circles in India, each co-terminus to a state, for which his firm now has the licence.
After Bharti Telecom, Vodafone Essar and Reliance Industries, Videocon’s entry into telecom sector is expected to mark the beginning of a new competitive era in the sector. Dhoot claimed that he would have 50 million subscribers in five years.
For its marketing network, Dhoot would for the time being depend on the existing dealers and retail outlets dealing with Videocon products.
“There are 40,000 dealers dealing with Videocon products and around 400,000 retail outlets across the country. They will sell mobile chips,” he said.
Regarding foreign tie-ups, Dhoot said he was looking for technical collaboration with some telecom giants in the Middle East countries.
“Foreign collaboration is not a problem. Everybody is interested in tying up with Indian firms,” said Dhoot.