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Greenfield operators : Eyeing Opportunities

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

In a first of its kind event, VOICE&DATA, in association with ECI, brought

new telecom operators on a common platform for a round table on 'Building

Today's Network for Tomorrow'.

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The event saw participation from new operators which have got licenses to

start their services. They included Unitech Wireless, Bycell Telecommunications,

Sistema, Datacom and Loop Telecom. Moderated by Ibrahim Ahmad, group editor,

business magazine group, CyberMedia, the evening was characterized by a lively

discussion on the various challenges and opportunities being faced by the new

operators.

The round table was attended by Alexandre Louzine, CEO, Bycell

Telecommunications; Rajneesh Arora, CFO, Bycell; Bhoopesh Raghav, head NLD, Loop

Telecom; Asit Kadayan, director (M-II), Telecom Engineering Center; Sergey

Savchenko, CFO, Sistema Shyam TeleServices; Atul Agarwal, head, IT, DataCom

Solutions; Shafiq Anjum, senior general manager, IT, DataCom Solutions; Rajat

Singh, head, business strategy, DataCom Solutions; Vinay Kala, general manager,

projects, Unitech Wireless; Ram Prabhu, head, roll out, Unitech Wireless; Yoav

Valadarsky, AVP Solutions marketing, ECI Telecom; BM Baweja, senior director,

ministry of communications and IT; and Kiran Pande, president, ECI Telecom.

Panelists

discussing the issues and opportunities being faced by greenfield operators
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The event was kick-started by Ahmad delivering a welcome note. Followed by a

presentation on 'AVP Solutions marketing' by Valadarsky of ECI.

Yoav Valadarsky

of ECI Telecom making a presentation on 'Building Today's Networks for

Tomorrow'

Greenfield operators believe that differentiation of their services is the

key factor which is going to help them in making inroads in the highly

competitive market, where average revenues per unit are consistently falling.

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“The incumbents have some advantages and we would have to come out with

innovative marketing strategies to establish ourselves. The differentiation of

the services is going to be the key factor for any greenfield operators in the

Indian market,” said Louzine.

An interesting aspect of the discussion was the idea of cooperation,

especially evident in infrastructure sharing. The members recognized that in

spite of various challenges, it is critical for the operators to come together

in terms of infrastructure sharing.

“Infrastructure sharing, both active and passive is important for every

player in the field. Loop proposes to join one or more telecom operators to

jointly create a pan-India fiber backbone. There can be substantial cost saving

through passive sharing as well,” said Raghav. The idea was further endorsed by

other members as well and the group decided to meet regularly to discuss their

problems and challenges in the Indian telecom market.

All in all, it was a lively event characterized by the participation of all

new operators getting ready to take on the challenge of competing with

established players like Airtel and Reliance.

Gagandeep Kaur



gagandeepk@cybermedia.co.in

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