Idea Cellular continued to be among India’s fastest growing cellular service companies, with its revenues rising by 83 percent to touch Rs 1,100 crore in FY 2002–03, from Rs 600 crore in the previous year. Its subscriber base grew by 58 percent to touch 1,280,441 from 808,676 in FY 2001–02. The biggest contribution came from the lucrative Delhi circle, which added 132,417 subscribers to Idea’s kitty. The growth was also fuelled by the deployment of new services like GPRS.

Idea invested a total of Rs 4,800 crore in various circles in FY 2002–03. The technology advancement in the telecom sector and its wide adoption by other service providers forced the company to upgrade its existing infrastructure. Idea chose Ericsson to upgrade both its IN-based prepaid and postpaid boxes. Idea also built new cell sites in all its operational circles during the fiscal. For instance, it built around 400 cell sites in Delhi, almost equivalent to AirTel, the leading service provider in the circle. The additional cell sites enabled the company to provide 6,000 km of highway coverage in four of its operating states. The result: it attained leadership position in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh circles, including Chattisgarh.

To provide improved service at cheaper rates, Idea kept on changing tracks throughout the fiscal. As part of this gameplan, it recently parted ways from Bharti and tied up with BSNL for routing of long distance calls. For international long distance, the company has tied up with VSNL along with its other Mobilefirst partners like BPL Mobile, Spice Telecom, RPG Cellular and Escotel.

Idea Cellular is now planning to pump in another Rs 500 crore this year to improve the infrastructure in its circles. The money would be utilized in building new cell sites, installing IVRs, call centers, and improving the IT infrastructure.