Money to burn: Vodafone marketing to spend lavishly in India

Mumbai: The UK cellular giant Vodafone, which recently bought out Hutch in India, reportedly put its plans its CEO Arun Sarin''s mouth is; the global telecom giant has actually worked out plans to spend $2 billion annually to make "inroads" into what is touted as the most dynamic telecom market in the world, as Sarin calls it.

According to Sarin, who was speaking to the media in New Delhi, since Vodafone''s entry into India, capital expenditure has doubled, and the company is now spending $2 billion a year.

Vodafone Essar, as the company is known in India, is now reportedly in talks to share infrastructure, which will include mobile towers, with other telecom companies in India, to synergise costs. According to Sarin, Vodafone Essar and other telecom players in India are "looking at ways to piggyback" on each others'' infrastructure, to capture the billions of Indians who are yet to get themselves a phone.

Tele-density in India is as of June 2007 is at 19.86, leaving the largest share of the pie for telecom players who can make it to the market in the fastest possible way. India added 8 million subscribers in August, according to government figures. Market penetration rates are still below 20 per cent, and operators like Reliance Communications are investing billions in expansion and infrastructure, especially in India''s vast rural regions. respectively.