The Essar Group promoted BPL Mobile is planning to offer mobile telephony services from 21 circles, and has applied for license.

The company has applied for Universal Access Service Licence (UASL) that will enable it to provide 2G services in the country.

S Subramaniam, director and chief operating officer, BPL Mobile Communications, said, ?An application has been filed with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).?

?We have a sizeable presence in Mumbai, but need to have a strategic roadmap for growth. A larger footprint will help us derive economies of scale and cost synergies in this highly competitive market. Expansion into new circles will meet both these objectives,? he said.

The Essar Group?s primary telecom venture is Vodafone-Essar, in which it holds 33% while UK-based Vodafone holds the remaining 67%. Interestingly, Essar?s interest in telecom is also routed through its investments in BPL Mobile and Essar Telecom Retail.

The Essar Group holds 9.9% in BPL Mobile and the rest of the stake is held by friends and associates. This is an interesting development considering that BPL Mobile was reportedly put on the block.

?It now seems that at least in paper Essar is planning to run parallel operations to Vodafone Essar through

BPL Mobile,? said industry sources. Since there are five players like Spice, Aircel, Idea etc ahead in the queue waiting for spectrum allocation, till BPL gets the spectrum nothing changes.

Certain reports said that the group has applied for the licence through shippingstop.com, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BPL Mobile. BPL Mobile now provides GSM services in Mumbai, and has over 1.1 million subscribers.