Tata Comm To Take Wimax Services To 115 Towns This Fiscal

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Tata Comm to take WiMax services to 115 towns this fiscal

3 Aug, 2008, 1125 hrs IST, PTI

MUMBAI : Tata Communications, formerly VSNL, will take its WiMax services to 115 towns in this fiscal from the present 60 and it will look at taking broadband-WiMax services to four to five cities, a top company official said.

"The government has announced that it will auction spectrum. Once the spectrum is alloted, we plan to take the broadband-WiMax services to four-five cities," Tata Communications CEO and MD N Srinath told shareholders yesterday.

Presently, the company uses underground cable network to provide WiMax services. But it faces "quality problems" because of "last mile connectivity problems".

Using broadband would improve the quality of the WiMax service, he said.

WiMax is a telecommunication technology that provides wireless data.

The company would be investing USD two billion in the next three years as part of its capital expenditure, Srinath said.

The investments would go in laying submarine cable systems and rolling out WiMax services, he added.