Date:08/06/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/06/08/stories/2005060801980400.htm

Back M Corp in expansion mode, enters handset market

Our Bureau

Mr V. Rajendren, General Manager, HCL Infinet, flanked by Mr Edward Ong, Regional General Manager, South East Asia, Konica Minolta Printing Solutions Pvt Ltd, and Ms Eve Chen, Konica Minolta Printing Solutions Pvt Ltd, at the launch of the new range of laser printers in the Capital on Thursday. — Shanker Chakravarty

New Delhi , June 7

M CORP Global said on Monday that it is in the expansion mode, having bid for six additional unified access licences. "In fact, we have applied for six new unified access licences to the Department of Telecom to ramp up our presence in North India," the Chairman, Mr B. K. Modi, said. M Corp Global is the Indian promoter of Spice Telecom, with the foreign promoters being AIG, Distacom and Darby. Mr Modi said he expected the licences to come through in July, for which the company would have to spend around Rs 250 crore.

Speaking on the occasion, the company's Managing Director, Mr Umang Dash, said, "M Corp has applied for six additional unified access licences in Western and Eastern UP, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan."

Mr Dash said that the company is open to fresh equity investment and partnership in the six new circles. He, however, ruled out any equity partnership for Punjab and Karnataka circles, the areas where Spice is currently operational.

Meanwhile, the $250-million M Corp Global announced its foray into the Indian cellular handset market with the launch of Spice mobiles and said the manufacturing facility for these handsets at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, would be functional by this year-end.

The new launches are called Spice S 500, Spice S 550 and Spice S 600. The handsets include an MP3 phone to upload music from a PC and a GPRS/MMS capability in the Spice S 600 model. The Spice S 550 offers a Triband with GSM 900/1800/1900 support and can be used in any part of the world.