Within a few months of selling Aircel (with services in Tamil Nadu and Chennai) to Hutchison for Rs 1,200 crore, serial entrepreneur, C. Sivasankaran is back in the mobile services game. Dishnet Wireless (DWL), which is wholly-owned by Sivasankaran, has bought Unified Access Service Licences (UASL) for seven eastern circles, including all six C class ones, for a licence fee of Rs 300 crore.

Now Sivasankaran will launch GSM-based mobile services in the North-east, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar. He has also sought licences for Uttar Pradesh (east), UP (west) and Madhya Pradesh. Those licences should come through soon. He plans to invest Rs 1,800 crore in these circles.

Says Sivasankaran: "The focus of our service will be meeting the needs of rural India, which does not have access to telephone services." On 30 June, these seven circles had 1.62 million GSM subscribers, but C class circles are growing at 6 per cent a month (national average of 3.65 per cent). The three other circles have 3 million subscribers, with UP (east) growing the fastest.

Knowing Sivasankaran it's unlikely that he will hold on to these circles forever. So there's something in these circles that has stoked his appetite. Or is this the emergence of another GSM biggie?