All the major mobile telephony operators including Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, which picked up a substantial stake in the company late last year, are in the fray to pick up the stake put on block by the companies, Mr PH Rao, managing director of the company said here on Thursday.

As per the current equity pattern, BellSouth International Asia Pacific Inc of USA and Milicon International Cellular SA of the Luxembourg, are holding 24.5 per cent stake each in the SkyCell, taking the foreign equity holding in the company to the maximum permissible limit of 49 per cent allowed by the government. The Indian partner DSS Enterprises Pvt Ltd holds another 10.5 per cent stake in the venture, taking the total stake for sale to 59.5 per cent.

The Indian telephony giant Bharti had picked up 40.5 per cent stake in the venture from Crompton Greeves in August last year for an undisclosed sum. Following this, Bharti has nominated three members on the board of the company. However, any effective change in the management would take place only after the litigation going on in one of the Chennai courts is over.

Mr Rao said the company has lined up investments worth Rs 60 crore to spruce up its infrastructure and network of base stations to provide better service to the customers. SkyCell is part-funding the network expansion drive partly by its own funds and partly by tapping the debt market. He said, the company, which had an accumulated loss of over Rs 90 crore, has started making cash profits to the tune of Rs 0.75 crore per month since last year. The initial investment of the company was to the tune of Rs 124 crore, he added.

He said SkyCell has started offering WAP over mobile phone to its customers and may also introduce interconnectivity with other circles as Bharti, the current promoter holds mobile telephony licences for the adjoining AP and Karnataka circles.

Already a number of mobile majors like BPL and Escotel are offering the services to its customers now. He said the company is now completing a network expansion programme which, once completed, would make SkyCell better coverage.