Batelco Group has announced that its affiliate company in India, S Tel, has secured 3G spectrum for its operations in Orissa, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh.

S Tel, in which Batelco Group has a 42.7 per cent stake, will pay approximately $76 million for the spectrum, said a top Batelco official.

Batelco Group CEO Peter Kaliaropoulos said, 'Batelco is extremely pleased that S Tel has been successful in the recently completed 3G auctions in India. Having launched its operations in record time, S Tel has achieved a new milestone by being part of the inaugural group of operators to have won 3G spectrum in India.'

'Securing 3G spectrum in these three markets is a critical element of S Tel’s strategy to position itself as a leading company in India’s fastest growing rural sector and meet anticipated strong demand for mobile internet services in the next few years,' the official said.

“S Tel, which launched services in Orissa, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh in December 2009, is already a success story in rural India having built up a customer base in excess of 1.4million in just four months of operation,” Kaliaropoulos observed.

“To build a customer base of this size in such a short period of time is an outstanding achievement by S Tel,” he added.

Swaminathan P, the president of Siva Group, Batelco Group’s partner in S Tel, stated that securing 3G spectrum in the three principal circles of Bihar, Orissa and HP in which S Tel's 2G services were launched five months ago, highlights the long term strategic commitment of S Tel and the keenness of the partners Siva Group and Batelco Group to offer the best of services to their customers.

Kaliaropoulos pointed out that the investment in S Tel forms part of the Batelco Group’s growth and expansion strategy in wireless and broadband markets and fits comfortably with the long term plans to diversify Batelco’s geographical footprint and increase its scale.

“Together with our partner in India, the Siva Group, we aspire to make S Tel a significant and formidable operator in India, the third largest and fastest growing mobile market in the world,” added Kaliaropoulos.

S Tel has unified access services licenses to operate in three other Indian circles - North-East, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir and expects to launch services there soon, thus further expanding the company’s growth opportunities.-TradeArabia News Service