S Tel achieves financial closure

Chennai, Nov 6 : S Tel, one of the new entrants in the Indian mobile telephony space, Friday said it has achieved financial closure for its Rs.2,000-crore project and that it would start rolling out services this year.

In a statement, S Tel said an eight-bank consortium led by IDBI has agreed to lend Rs.953 crore for nine years.

The two promoters of the company -- India's Siva group and Bahrain Telecommunications Co -- have brought in Rs.1,253 crore as equity.

The company has the Unified Access Services Licenses (UASL) and spectrum to operate in six category C circles -- Orissa, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, North-East, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir.

S Tel to provide unified mobile service, wireless broadband and value-added service (VAS) to over 225 million people in these circles.

"With the successful financial closure, we are set to launch services in six circles over the current year and early next year," said S Tel chief executive Shamik Das.

According to the company, the category C circle witnessed a 102 percent growth as opposed to 42 percent clocked by the metros.

These markets have so far seen below 26 percent mobile penetration and contribute only 12 percent of India's subscriber base.

--IANS