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Fascel expects to double subscriber base in Gujarat by March 2002
Neeraj Jha
Mumbai: Fascel Limited, the cellular service provider in Gujarat, says it will double its subscriber base by March 2002 to over three lakh from the current 1.53 lakh. The company is looking to touch 2.5 lakh subscribers by this December itself. Most of the growth will come from network roll out especially into smaller towns. "We'll double our base by March '02. Our plan is to touch the 2.50 lakh mark by the end of this year itself. We're looking for maximum roll out in the state, especially in smaller towns," Mr Sanjeev R Ghanate, vice president -sales and marketing Fascel told The Financial Express from Ahmedabad. The company has trained its guns on smaller towns, the district headquarters which are not covered yet and adjoining towns from where it sees most of the volumes. "There are quite a lot of smaller towns still left," Mr Ghanate said. "Of all the district headquarters in the state, Fascel has covered 24 already. As far as the major towns, where it is already present, are concerned, the company wouldbe building up capacity. These would include cities like Ahmedabad, Rajkot and others. Also, as part of its growth strategy, the company is contemplating greater highway coverage to tap the road-traveller segment. As a lot of people travel by road, highway coverage would make a lot of commercial sense for us," Mr Ghanate said. According to Mr Ghanate, the Rajkot-Junagarh sector has been completely covered and so has the 210 kilometer Ahmedabad-Rajkot sector which connects eight small towns. "The Ahmedabad-Rajkot stretch is near completion. Only a few odd kilometers are left," he said. The company has, what Mr Ghanate claimed, a full high way coverage in the state, touching Palanpur in Rajasthan on the one side and Umargaon in Maharashtra on the other. Fascel is the leading cellular service provider in the state of Gujarat where it operates its services under the CelForce brand name. Fascel is considered to be one of the best performing cellular companies in India. In Gujarat its competitor is the Birla-AT&T-Tata Limited. Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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