Bharti Mobitel - (Merged with Bharti Cellular Ltd.)

Active

Prospective

Bharti Mobitel was the cellular licensee for the Kolkata (Calcutta) Metro area. Bharti Mobitel was known as Spice Cell Ltd. until August 2001 when Bharti Cellular acquired 100% of Spice Cell from ModiCorp for approximately US$90 million. Spice Cell Ltd. had also operated under the name Modi Telstra Ltd which was initially owned by Telstra Corp. of Australia (49%) and ModiCorp (51%). In June 2000, Telstra sold its stake to ModiCorp. Originally, the company was awarded a 10 year cellular service license for the circle of Calcutta. This was later extended to a 15 year and then 20 year term. The company paid US$419,000 in license fee for its first year of operations, US$838,000 for the second year, and US$1.68 million for the third year. Thereafter, it paid around US$140 per subscriber. Spice Cell launched its operations of the GSM network under the brand name Mobilenet in July 1995. The company now operates its pre-paid service under the brand-name "Magic." Bharti TeleVentures Ltd. announced the completion of a merger of Bharti Mobitel Ltd, which had run the mobile service operations in Kolkata (Calcutta), with Bharti Cellular Ltd. in 2003. Bharti Cellular Ltd, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti TeleVentures and holds the license for providing cellular mobile services in Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (West), Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The merger petition was filed in October 2002 before the High Court of Delhi, which was approved in its final hearing in March 2003. For 2002 investment information, see "AirTel rolls out bundled plan for Rs 5715" at http://in.biz.yahoo.com/030529/26/24oh5.html fax sent to Mr. Deepak Gulati, 91 33 2357 5336/7 on 7/18/2003 None

India

High

World Bank Group

Project

Mass Transit, Manufacturing (Industrial), Government