Confirming a news report about three suitors (Idea Cellular, Bharti and Hutch) showing an interest in acquiring the group's Aircel Televentures, the holding company for Aircel Cellular Limited (the service provider in Chennai) and Aircel Limited (which operates in the rest of the state), he says that the companies are worth more than the Rs 1,700 crore - the amount at which the Sterling group's cellular operations are valued.

Two years ago, Sivasankaran had announced at a press conference that the group would be bidding for one of the largest Indian companies. Till date, no major takeover has been announced by the Sterling group - apart from buying out RPG Cellular Limited (the Chennai circle mobile operator) for Rs 208 crore and renaming it Aircel Cellular.  On the other hand the group has sold the internet service division of its high profile company, Dishnet DSL Limited to VSNL for Rs 270 crore.

When queried about his earlier announcement, Sivasankaran replies, "I did want to bid for one of the largest companies. But I got hints and feelers from various quarters to keep away. I am not in a position to tell you more than this."

However, Sivasankaran says that the group has bought the Barista coffee chain belonging to the Tatas, though he refused to divulge any details of the deal. Speaking of Dishnet DSL's future plans, he says the company will soon launch its wireless broadband operations. The company posted a profit of Rs 320 crore in 2003-04, he adds. "Dishnet DSL will soon come out with a public issue."

Meanwhile the current focus is on expanding the group's cellular telephony business. Put together, the two companies (Aircel Cellular and Aircel) have a subscriber base of one million - over 36 per cent market share. "We are targeting a subscriber base of one crore, out of Tamil Nadu's population of six crore," says Sivasankaran..

Aircel Cellular has firmed up a Rs 102 crore plan to expand the Chennai circle network. "We will expand the capacity to three million. By November 2004, the network capacity will also go up to 2 million and by January 2005 to three million. This will be the first company in India to have such a large capacity," he adds.

The increased capacity will be utilised by increasing the subscriber base with innovative schemes. One such scheme is the free phone connection to anyone who becomes an Aircel subscriber before September 2004. As per the scheme, which comes into effect from January 1, 2005, the subscriber can gift this free connection to a woman or a child. "While the incoming calls and short messaging service (SMS) will be free on the gifted connection, the outgoing rate will be Re 1 per minute," says Sivasankaran.

The second scheme that will be launched on 15, 2005, is the offer of a 2.5-inch diameter cell handset to children of Aircel subscribers. According to Sivasankaran, these handsets cannot be switched-off and outgoing calls will be restricted only to the parents. The face of these handsets will have the images of the father and mother and can be activated by touching either image.

According to him, the group will innovate the schemes in Tamil Nadu and replicate them in other states and finally integrate the whole telecom operations.

The company will replicate this scheme in Uttar Pradesh (west and east) circles, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar, Orissa, Assam and the North East regions, where the Sterling group has applied for licences to start mobile telephony operations.