Abhijit Pal in Calcutta on Monday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Sept. 24: Tata Indicom plans to invest Rs 125 crore in the city circle this fiscal. It will invest Rs 306 crore in the eastern region.

The CDMA telecom firm has crossed the 10-lakh subscriber mark in the city and is targeting another 14 lakh customers by the end of March next year.

“We will keep our fingers on the pulse of the mass market while increasingly focusing on high-end handset partnerships with operators. We have cumulatively invested Rs 496 crore in Calcutta,” said Abhijit Pal, chief operating officer (Calcutta circle) of Tata Teleservices Ltd.

The company has earmarked Rs 207 crore for Bengal, part of which has already been invested in this fiscal.

Tata Indicom, which plans to set up 2,069 towers in the eastern region, is yet to demerge this business.

“As of now, the towers are part of the company. I cannot comment on the future. However, we do share our towers with all operators, be it GSM or CDMA, and the aim is to take it up a notch further,” said Pal.

For CDMA players such as Tata Indicom and Reliance, a strong network is of greater importance.

Tata Indicom has emerged as the fastest-growing wireless operator in the country.

According to the latest quarterly performance indicators of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the firm increased its market share to 9.7 per cent in March 2007 from 3.53 per cent in the corresponding month a year ago.

It has a market share of 13 per cent in the city. The CDMA service provider started making profits in the last fiscal after two years of operations in the city. The investment for Bengal till March 31, 2008 will be Rs 928 crore and Rs 1,700 crore for the eastern region.

Tata Indicom has a retail model of True Value Shoppes and True Value Hubs.