This will take the total investment in Mumbai to Rs 11.5 billion. The fresh dose of funds will go towards expanding the network infrastructure and improving the coverage footprint for both outdoor as well as deep in-doors all across Mumbai.

This has been a good year for Hutchison Max Telecom. Besides Orange Hutch in Delhi also crossed the one million mark. The group crossed over four million customers across its ten circles this month. Hutchison Max Telecom MD Asim Ghosh was quoted in an official release saying, "Today, we serve over a million customers, who say 'I speak Orange'. It has been a wonderful eight years and I thank the people of Mumbai for giving us their vote of confidence."

Currently Orange has the largest number of cell sites deployed in Mumbai amongst all operators (including GSM as well as non-GSM operators). Orange covers Mumbai with over 650 cell sites. Orange plans to retain capacity leadership in the city with an additional deployment of 170 more cell sites.

To improve voice quality, Orange has successfully deployed the "Intelligent Optimisation Service", a cutting edge technology software from Motorola. This provides optimal use of spectrum, leading to a superior voice quality. To enhance its data services and to allow a better throughput, Hutchison Essar will soon be launching Edge as a country wide initiative. The release adds that the investment in Mumbai alone will be around Rs. 200 million for the project.

Hutchison Essar operates cellular services currently in ten circles. They cover 70 per cent of the country's purchasing power - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (East).