India's Videocon recently announced that it will foray into the mobile telecom business by investing 60 billion Rupees (US$1.5 billion; US$1=40.5 Rupees) in rolling out pan-India GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) services through its subsidiary Datacom Solutions. Commercial services are slated for launch by May 2008, Business Standard of India reported.

On February 2008, the Indian government awarded Universal Access Service Licence to Datacom, allowing the company to operate GSM services in all 23 telecom circles of India. Through this investment plan, the company aims to expand its GSM subscriber base to 40 million within the next five years, the Economic Times of India reported. Telecom spectrum, however, is yet to be released. Should the spectrum allocation be delayed, the company may opt to lease the spectrum from the existing telecom operators, according to Business Standard.

The Economic Times of India also reported that Datacom plans to form GSM strategic alliance with an international telecom operator. The international partner is expected to be finalized in the next three weeks.