Aircel to add 400 3G towers in Tamil Nadu

In order to tap the emerging demand for data service, the company would add upto 400 3G towers in Tamil Nadu (barring Chennai), in the next three months, K Sankara Narayanan, Regional Business Head, Aircel Chennai and Rest of Tamil Nadu, told reporters Coimbatore.

The revenue from data services was growing at 50 percent annually, compared to 10 percent growth in income from text and voice services, he said.

"The telecom industry has heavily relied on voice so far but data is going to be the next big game changer," Sankara Narayanan claimed adding that 95 percent of the revenue of the company was from voice.

Stating that the company has earned Rs. 520 crore in revenue in Rest Of Tamil Nadu in July-September, he said that of the 1.8 crore subscribers for Aircel in the state, 26 lakh customers use data services.

The company would launch broadband wireless access (BWA) services based on the 4G technology in Chennai and Rest Of Tamil Nadu in the next six months, he said.