Tata Teleservices and Hughes Tele.Com Ltd
are likely to merge their basic telephony services in Andhra Pradesh and
Maharashtra, respectively. The two companies are negotiating this possibility
and a final decision has not yet been taken.
According to the industry, such a merger has been
prompted by the need to consolidate and increase scale.
Presently, the Tatas have a subscriber base of 70,000
in the Andhra Pradesh circle, while Hughes has about 90,000 subscribers in
Maharashtra.