GSM telecom player Aircel on Monday said it will invest up to five billion dollars by 2010 to launch operations across the country.

“We have already pumped in two billion dollars so far,” Maxis Communications Berhad CEO and Aircel director Sandip Das said in Kolkata at the launch of Kolkata service circle.

Aircel holds licence and spectrum for service rollout in all the 23 telecom circles of the country. “Kolkata is 10th circle and we have 13 more circles to cover to have a pan India presence. We hope to cover these in the next two and half years,” Das said.

Maxis Communications holds a 74 per cent stake in Aircel Group, while Apollo Hospitals Enterprises of India owns the rest.

Speaking about infrastructure, Aircel chief operating officer Gurdeep Singh said the company would add 14,000 additional cell sites in one year for service rollout, which would need 1.6 billion dollars.

The company has 7,000 sites at present and of this one per cent is shared.

Singh said the company has not yet decided on whether it would invest the fund on its own or add the sites on sharing basis.

Asked about the funding plans, Das said the promoters had not yet zeroed in on the funding modalities. “It would be in combination of debt and equity. We are open for all options, we may even also go in for diluting stake or acquisitions. The issue is not money. Our first priority is for strong pan India network,” he said.

Aircel has a total subscriber base of 10.8 million and holds a 18.2 per cent market share. The revenue of the company n the last calender year was 0.5 billion dollars.

Aircel aims at adding 8-10 million subscribers by next year and is optimistic on the Kolkata circle as mobile

penetration is lowest in the city among all the metro circles.

The penetration in Kolkata is 45 per cent while in Delhi its 105 per cent, Mumbai 93 per cent and Chennai 87 per cent, the company officials said.

Aircel has invested Rs 500 crore in Kolkata circle in launching the operations from today with 550 cell sites or base stations. The sites would be ramped up to 750 shortly, Singh said.

Singh said the the launch of Aircel’s BlackBerry service was expected in the next two to three months.