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S Tel on Friday said that it has achieved financial closure for its Rs.2, 000-crore project and that it would start rolling out services this year. S Tel is one of the new entrants in the Indian mobile telephony space.
In a statement, S Tel mentioned that an eight-bank consortium led by IDBI has agreed to lend Rs.953 crore for nine years.
India's Siva group and Bahrain Telecommunications Co, the two promoters of the company 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 will be providing unified mobile service, wireless broadband and value-added service (VAS) to over 225 million people in these circles.
S Tel chief executive Shamik Das said, “With the successful financial closure, we are set to launch services in six circles over the current year and early next year.”
There has been a 102 % growth in the C circle compared to 42 % in the metros, the company says. These markets have so far seen below 26 % mobile penetration and contribute only 12 % of India's subscriber base.
