43. Escotel Mobile Communications

Escotel Mobile Communications Ltd. operates cellular phone services in Uttar
Pradesh (West), Haryana and Kerala circles. Its subscriber base in Haryana was
50,582 in FY 2000-01. Its Kerala subscriber number during the same period was
1,45,818 while in UP (West) it had 1,10,568 subscribers.

Escotel, the No. 1 operator in terms of rural penetration, netted a turnover
of Rs 175.4 crore. Of this, Rs 144.6 crore was its net revenue from its own
services. The rest accounts for the various access charges, such as roaming
revenue shared with other operators like toll charges and STD-ISD charges, and
interconnect charges shared with BSNL and other operators. The operator commands
around 90 percent of the services revenue generated in the Haryana circle and
around 60 percent in Kerala. It had almost a monopoly in its other circle–UP
(West).

In the FY 2001-01, its customer base grew by 127 percent from 1,35,000 to
3,06,958 customers. This made Escotel the first category ‘B’ operator in
India to cross 3,00,000-customer mark. As of March 2001, Escotel circles had
20.7 percent of all India circles (excluding metros) cellular base, in spite of
representing just 11.7 percent of the population. Within this, Escotel commands
a market share of 67 percent of customers and 74 percent of the revenue in its
circles of operations.