Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL),which operates under the MTS brand,today said it will start 4G services in India with fresh investments of around $200 million (about Rs 1,093 crore).
The Indian arm of Russian conglomerate Sistema said,however,that it will not start investing in the 4G LTE (long-term evolution) services this year.
SSTL now has an enhanced network,which will deliver excellent quality and a clear roadmap to LTE (4G). Our network is easily upgradable with likely expenditure being $200 million spread over several years, SSTL President and CEO Vsevolod Rozanov said here today.
Sistema,which provides mobile services based on CDMA technology,said it expects that the 4G services network will cost it around $300 million,which will include support of around $100 million from existing infrastructure.
On the time frame for investments in the LTE services,Rozanov said,Its (LTE) not going to start this year. So speaking about the future,it will be spread over 3 or 4 years. He said the services will be focussed mainly on tier-II and tier-III cities.
SSTL recently won 3 blocks of 1.25 Mhz each in 8 telecom circles: Delhi,Kolkata,Gujarat,Karnataka,Tamil Nadu,Kerala,Uttar Pradesh (West) and West Bengal for Rs 3,639 crore.
It already has operations in Rajasthan. The firm plans to deploy a version of 4G technology which can work only in 1.4 Mhz of airwaves frequencies.
