MUMBAI: Telecom company Hutchison Essar has acquired the West Bengal and Sikkim telecom service licences. This was announced today by Hutchison Essar executive director Sandip Das.

With this development, Hutch's 'beautiful world' now spreads to 13 cities in the country including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, UP East, UP West and West Bengal and Sikkim.

Commenting on the acquisition of the West Bengal and Sikkim license Das said, "The wireless teledensity in West Bengal at 0.48 per cent, represents a significant opportunity for growth. This acquisition is an important part of our expansion into Eastern India. We are currently building up the cellular network and will launch the Hutch service in these two states shortly."

He added, "We will also be investing aggressively to strengthen our national network and customer service capabilities. We doubled our subscriber base last year. We expect significant growth again."