Idea Cellular launched services in Mumbai, with aims of getting 20% of the city's new users over the next year and breaking even in the zone in four years, a Reuters report said.

The Reuters report said India's financial capital has been a lucrative zone for telecom firms, but with more than 80% of the city's population owning mobile phones, compared with an all-India average of just 26%, the pace of addition has slowed down.

Mobile subscriber numbers in the Mumbai service area rose by about 4 million in the year ending June to 14.5 million, with the population of the telecom zone estimated at about 17 million.

In Mumbai, Vodafone Essar, India's No. 3 mobile firm, had a market-leading 3.7 million users as of end-June, followed by Reliance Communications, the second-largest operator nationally, with just over 3 million, the report said.

The Reuters report further quoted managing director Sanjeev Aga said Idea would spend 8 billion rupees ($180 million) on its Mumbai expansion in the financial year ending April 2009.

Shares in Idea Cellular were up 3.7% in a Mumbai market that was up 1.2%.

Idea already provides mobile services in 11 of India's 22 telecoms service areas and has licences for the others. It had 28.2 million subscribers as of end-July.

Nationally, Idea lags Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone-controlled Vodafone Essar and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd in number of subscribers.

Source:telecomasia