As a part of its aggressive plan for the growing cellular market, leading mobile phone service provider Orange will invest Rs 1,800 crore (Rs 18 billion) in India next year for expanding network infrastructure and improving coverage footprint, of which Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) has been earmarked for Mumbai.

The company is also planning to deploy an additional 170 base transceiver stations, or cell sites, taking its total number of BTS to 820 in the city, a company spokesperson said in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The total investment of Rs 1,800 crore would be used for outdoor network development across all its circles and deep in-doors network improvement in Mumbai circle, she said.

The company, which crossed the one-million customer-mark in Mumbai and Delhi, would commission its fifth switch to enhance network capacity to 1.7 million customers, she said.

Meanwhile, Hutchinson Max Telecom, the providers of mobile services under brand name Orange, in a release said that the company was planning to triple its SMS handling capacity and use EDGE technology for its network in 2004.

Hutchinson Essar, the Indian arm of the telephony major, would invest over Rs 110 crore (Rs 1.10 billion) for the EDGE, a technology used for enhancing data services operations, it said, adding that in Mumbai alone the investment would be amount to about Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million).

Stating that the investment in Mumbai alone was around Rs 1,150 crore (Rs 11.50 billion), including Rs 300 crore planned for 2004, the company said it had achieved three milestones this month - Hutch in Delhi and Orange in Mumbai crossing the one-million mark and the group crossing the four million customers across its 10 circles.

To improve the voice quality, Orange has deployed the 'intelligent optimisation service,' a cutting-edge technology software from Motorola, providing for optimal use of the spectrum.