How was FY 2004–05 for Idea? What are your plans for this year?
FY 2004-05 was a historical year for Idea. We completed the largest acquisition in the industry and integrated Escotel, registered presence in eight circles with over five million subscribers, introduced EDGE for the first time in the country and came out with a many new tariffs.

For FY 2005–06 we are planning to roll out in three circles: Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (East), and Himachal Pradesh. We have gone ahead with a soft launch in these circles and would come out with commercial launch in the coming months.

What is your network coverage? What was your capex last year and what do you plan to spend this year?
At present our networks cover over 300 cities, 850 towns, and over 6,000 km of highways. We plan to increase this number by almost 40 percent in FY 2005–06. In the next phase of expansion we are covering 10 percent of the headquarters in the new circles. The capex for FY 2004–05 was Rs 650 crore and this year we would double this amount with rollouts in new towns and circles. Till now, we have spent around Rs 6,500 crore as capex.

What has been the reason behind your success?
Our success has been due to a combination of many things. Of our eight circles, we are clear leaders in three: Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh (West). We have consciously worked on our customers, the number of retailers, distributors, and number of contact points. All these are 50 percent more in comparison to the nearest competitor.

In terms of quality of service TRAI has put us on the number one position and VOICE&DATA has ranked us number two. We have also been very innovative in tariff plans, value-added products, and service delivery has been superior to others. Our customers have been fully satisfied with our reach.

What is the split between pre-paid and post-paid customers? What is you churn rate?
Our customer split is 75: 25 in favor of pre-paid customers. Our post-paid churn is better than the industry average and pre paid churn is at par with the industry's.

How are GRPS-EDGE doing?
There are almost one lakh GPRS-EDGE customers. Since last financial year, there has been almost 100 percent growth in the VAS revenues. About 30 percent of our revenues come from non-voice services and almost seven percent comes from value-added services including data.

When do you think 3G will take off in India?
We have applied for 3G spectrum. There has been lot of noise in Europe around 3G. It has not taken off due to lack of handsets and applications. The handsets have not worked and when they worked there were no applications. For any technology to advance, customers must have a need for it.

Wireless technology should fulfil the unique needs of customers and reduce costs. We do not see any of these happening with the launch of 3G.

What we are talking about 3G is still far off in the future. Lot of work will have to be done on the network before rolling it out. The 3G hype is, more than anything else, a means to acquire spectrum.

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