Essar

Essar Communications operates in four business segments: Telecom, telecom retail, telecom infrastructure and IT & BPO. Vodafone-Essar is a joint venture of Essar Communication Holdings Ltd and the UK-based Vodafone Group. It is one of India’s largest cellular service companies, with a subscriber base of over 50 million. Essar operates integrated IT enabled services through the Aegis brand name, with a presence in interaction services, back office services and value-added services. Aegis has a global delivery model with 20 centers across USA and India. It employs over 20,000 employees in India and the U.S who have expertise in the Telecom, Insurance, Banking and Healthcare domains. Essar has launched India's first countrywide chain of multi-brand and multi-service outlets in the telecom retail space. The MobileStore Ltd currently runs over 1,000 outlets, branded “The MobileStore”. In the next two years, over 2,500 outlets will come up across 650 cities. Essar Telecom Infrastructure is one of the largest independent telecom infrastructure service provisioning companies in the country. It builds telecom tower infrastructure and shares it with several telecom operators in India. It has already set up over 3,500 towers in India, with plans to build 20,000 towers. Essar Communications Holdings Limited had earlier this year announced the acquisition of a 49% stake in Econet Wireless International Limited (EWI) by subscribing to fresh capital in the company. EWI has a 70% shareholding in Econet Wireless Kenya. Econet Wireless Kenya Limited has recently been issued a GSM license by the Kenyan telecom regulator and working together with its partners, it is preparing to build and launch Kenya’s third mobile cellular network. The company aims to launch their services by the end of November 2008 and will focus on capturing a unique segment of the market that has been previously untapped. Essar will actively participate with EWI in the network rollout of Econet Wireless Kenya.

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