i Develop Stocks Advisory

Videocon ups investment to Rs 12,000 cr in telecom Videocon promoted Datacom will invite bids next week for rolling out 70 million GSM mobile lines across the country, envisaging an investment of over Rs 12,000 crore in the next four years. "We shall be releasing Request for Proposal (RFP) from telecom vendors for 70 million GSM lines. Our plan is to start rolling out network by August this year," Ravi Sharma, Managing Director of Datacom, a company led by Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot, told media. Videocon, which has a majority stake in Datacom, had earlier announced Rs 6,000 crore investment in the telecom business and it has now been doubled to Rs 12,000 crore. Besides huge investment in the domestic telecom sector, Datacom is also looking for a footprint in the global market through a mix of stake acquisition in existing telecom companies or through greenfield projects. The company is talking to a host of players globally through its international arm Thompson, Sharma said, adding that talks are in the initial stage and fructification of the deal may take some time. Datacom was awarded licenses in 22 circles recently and the government has already started allocating spectrum (radio frequency) in some of the circles. The company has been given start-up 4.4 MHz spectrum in states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and may also get frequency in Orissa and Kolkata soon.