Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile operator, will invest some US$5 billion in its mobile network over the next financial year, a leading executive at the operator has confirmed. “About US$2.5 billion has been earmarked as capex for mobile services and approximately US$2.5 billion to US$3 billion for the passive infrastructure,” said Bharti Group deputy chief executive Akhil Gupta, reports India’s Economic Times. Gupta added that around US$3 billion will be invested in Bharti Infratel, its wholly-owned tower business, and in Indus Towers, the independent tower company formed by Indian mobile operators Bharti, Vodafone and Idea to provide passive infrastructure services. Gupta said that the capex would be in addition to any expenditure Bharti has earmarked for India’s upcoming 3G license auctions. “Most of the money will be raised internally for 3G auctions if the bids are sensible. However, we cannot state any figure right now,” he added.

In separate news, Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal told Times of India that the operator was in no rush to buy-out Vodafone’s remaining 4.4 percent indirect stake in Bharti, despite recent comments from Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao to the contrary. “This is their stock lying in a grandparent company… a stock with no votes or board seats. It’s really their call [to sell it]. It has not crossed our minds yet,” Mittal said. The stake is a legacy of a previous partnership between the companies that was in place prior to Vodafone’s acquisition of Bharti rival Essar in 2007.